Heart Of Iron
by DrakeTheTraveller
Summary: Six was presumed dead after the fall of Reach, but the spartans fight wasn't over. He just moved on to the next one. Now stranded in a different world with strange inhabitants he must come to terms with his new existence.
1. Chapter 1

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 1: Unexpected Circumstances

He was going to die, there was no other way around it. Spartan-B312, also known as Noble Six, was at the end of his rope. He had been fighting for the last seventy two hours without rest. Of which his comrades fell one by one. Not ten minutes ago, his last marine companion had fallen. A lucky plasma grenade reducing him to nothing but a recent memory. Now he was alone, against the seemingly endless hoards of the Covenant.

Their unstoppable war machine had quickly overwhelmed the brave, but ultimately outclassed and outgunned, UNSC forces on the planet Reach. His defiance was nothing more then a final spit into the proverbial faces of his adversaries. Even noble team couldn't stop them, he was the last member. Jorge had died taking out a super carrier, Kat had been killed by a lance of energy from a sniper, Carter had rammed a pelican into a scarab battle walker, Jun had disappeared, (he was most likely dead), and then there was Emile. Emile had died a few hours ago. Frankly his death was magnificent, Six only hoped he could sell his life just as well.

The mostly silent spartan had been ambushed by sangheili zealots. Still he managed to kill his attackers, with an energy sword in his gut. Six had watched in futile anger as his teammate was killed, too far to aid him. His rage had been sated when he finally made it over there and ravaged the sangheili who had killed his brother in arms.

Six had rallied the scattered remainders of the UNSC defenders and had fashioned a sort of last stand. They fought like demons, every soldier displaying unbelievable acts of heroism. The only thing that had gnawed on Six's mind was that no one would ever know of their stand, at least no one human. Only the Covenant would remember, and that would have to do. When his last comrade had fallen Six ran.

Not in cowardice you see, but with a plan. A plan to enact one final piece of vengeance. Seizing a saber from the hidden and abandoned launch lads, he would take to the skies. Where, with luck he could perhaps dive it into a ship and destroy it. That was the best he had come up with at the moment.

His planning ground to a halt when a blob of green plasma impacted on the rock he was taking cover behind. It melted slightly under the heat, molten drops cascading down the cold stone, sizzling. The elites were drawing close. Six tore a frag from his bandolier and tossed it over the rock. After hearing the bang and roars of anguish, he sprinted deeper into the mountains, using his augmented muscles and the suits amplifying power to distance himself from the approaching hunters. With wide and heavy bounds, he lost them.

With the extra time he stopped aside another rock and took a look at his armor. He had been lucky so far. His matte black MJOLNIR had taken almost no damage. Just superficial gouges and burn scars, almost imperceptible from the already dark coloring. He took the necklace he had fashioned off his neck to look at it for a moment, to give him inspiration.

Jorge, Kat, Emile, and Carter. He had their dog tags. This was their memory, their legacy. As long as he lived he would carry them. Their fighting spirit right beside him till the end. Sadly when he would sacrifice himself, smashing into one of ships overhead, orbiting reach, they would be lost. But it didn't matter. Spartans never die, they just go missing in action. A blessing...and a curse.

The growling of sangheili hunters dragged his attention away from his dark brooding. They were closing in once more. He stashed the tags back into their place, parting them softly, and continued the treck to the last known saber launch pad. If it all worked out, there would be an available fighter for him to take. The chance was slim, most likely they had all launched already.

Six jogged for hours, barley staying ahead of the teams of elites hounding him. His augmented eyes allowed him to fully view the horrendous catastrophe that had befallen Reach. Vast swaths of the land was glassed all the way to the cities and beyond, nothing but melted earth and the broken alloy skeletons of skyscrapers, like the bones of ancient metal beasts erupting from the earth. Glassing was a devious and cruel thing. Using plasma projectors the Covenant would systematically burn the ground until mountains melted and seas boiled. Nothing was spared, all that was left was stone and metal. This was what Six saw, the ruination of the planet he had sworn to protect. The end of lives he was supposed to defend.

Then he spied something sticking out of a mountain that had been sheared in half, probably due to an unfinished glassing. It was a ramp that aimed up into the skies, like a jagged tooth. The hidden launch pad, he had found it. Picking up his pace, he put everything he had into it. Nothing but a blur he sprinted to the protruding objective. Half-way there he heard the ominous hum of a phantom dropship.

The black and purple ship stopped in front of the mountain. It's anti gravity engines allowed it to hover thirty feet off the ground, downdraft cleared the area under it of debris. With shimmering air, it disgorged a contingent of elites and a hunter pair. They spread out to search the area. Soon they would find him.

Six sighed, will he ever get a brake? Luckily he had several armor mods in his possession. He installed the stealth modification and went closer. As he approached the gathering of elites, he activated the mod. Now invisible he snuck past. Graceful and swift as a panther, he stalked through the unsuspecting elites.

He was going to make, unless of course that is, an elite would happen to move, blocking his way ou-and what would you know, an elite shifted places to stand in-between the two boulders he needed to cross in order to escape undetected. He checked his HUD to ascertain the amount of energy left in the cloak. The counter read forty five seconds. He needed to act fast.

With a leap he tackled the the elite, he aimed for the legs. Hitting the lower center of gravity, he ruined his opponents equilibrium, making for an easier takedown. Lady Luck was on his side this day. He managed to knock the elite over, on the opposite side of the rocks, concealing their little skirmish from prying eyes. With a practiced movement he wrapped his bicep around the elite's jugular, and before it could roar in anger, Six plunged his KA-BAR into its cranium. The ebony diamond carbide edged blade sliced straight through armor, bone, and flesh. It came to a stop inside the grey matter of the unfortunate sangheili. As soon as the blade rammed home the thrashing body went limp. He gently laid down the massive alien warrior, resting him on the gravely earth.

Six wiped the blade off on the corpses armor and sheathed it. Now with the enemy taken care of, he could return his focus to escaping undetected. Then, without warning his active-camo gave out.

BLARGHHHHHHHH!

...Or not.

One of the elites, a spec-ops variant, had spotted him as he got up from his crouch, cloak vanishing. Wasting no time, Six ripped a plasma grenade off the chest of the fallen elite, activated it, and threw it to land on the spec-ops sanghelil's head. The glowing sapphire orb clung to its helmet. It tried to tear the helm off, but ultimately failed. With a thunderous detonation, the upper torso of the sangheili vanished. Using the brief moment of respite, Six ran away once more, chased by lines of plasma rifle fire.

He had honestly considered staying to fight that group, but knew that word would spread and he would eventually get bogged down and would lead to a pointless death. A tremendous green beam flew by his helmet, obliterating a mound of stone in front of him. Yeah...staying didn't look so hot right now. The hunters would probably not miss next time, and he would rather not test the limits of his mjolnir, even if it was of a heavier make then the others. With that thought he sped up and outpaced his pursuers, pushing himself to the end of his endurance. He had lost his weapons at one point during the stand, so he couldn't fight a ranged engagement and win.

He sprinted until he reached the base of the mountain. As soon as he reached it he looked for an entrance. Somewhere their would be one. He ringed the mountain, half way around he stumbled upon the door. Built into the rocks and camouflaged, the doorway was all but invisible. His hawkish enhanced vision allowed him to pierce the veil of subterfuge. To make matters worse, the door was broken. Something had smashed into it and ruined the inner mechanisms, buckling it inwards. Six had to leverage it open with his super human strength. He bent the metal out of place until it could fit his massive frame. After he shimmed through he molded it back into place with a grunt of exertion.

Good, he was inside the facility. Now, the enemy would not find him, being too occupied with the razing of Reach to smoke him out. He could not waste the time he had bought. Six quickly strode through the abandoned hallways, looking for the fighter bay. They were filled with the refuse of humanity. Scattered papers and debris littered the hallway, as did spent shell casings and dried blood. It seemed the battle here had been hard fought. But as always, the Covenant won. This infuriated Six, it was not fair, he had sacrificed his future life, as did all the other spartans. And for what, setbacks and loss? He though that humans deserved a break, they were willing to sacrifice so much. So why did the alien bastards keep winning? He put existential queries on hold. For now he should focus on his objective. While he searched Six found the room labeled ARMORY. With a triumphant grin he walked inside. Things were finally looking up!

He found a MA37 assault rifle, a M6G magnum, an M45 tactical shotgun, and finally a SRS-99 sniper rifle. He frowned when he saw a spartan laser, it had been snapped in half. Six would not be taking it with him unfortunately, well least he had some weapons. Maybe his saber would not explode when he rammed into the Covenant ship. He could then use these guns to try and take it over. If he succeeded, it would be a valuable asset to the UNSC. And if he failed, he would have died fighting.

Six placed the assault rifle and shotgun on the magnetic clamps on his back. The magnum went on his thigh, mag-locked. The sniper rifle was put into a large duffle bag, which he filled with as much ammo as could possibly fit. Then he filled his armor's holders with clips for the assault rifle and pistol. Then he topped off his bandolier with shotgun shells and grenades. He filled another duffle bag entirely with ammo. Six walked out of the armory with practically all the contents of the entire arsenal. He was ready to kick some ass.

He carried the duffels to the hanger, which he had found directions for in a desolate briefing room, the only things left being cold molded coffee and the stench of despair. He did not linger there. Six pressed on, continuing his search for the vacuum worthy fighter craft. He hoped that there would be one Sabre for him. Six opened the double doors to the hanger and sighed with relief. There was exactly one left, and it was in the cradle to boot. He made his way over to it and gazed at its streamlined beauty.

The YSS-1000, or Sabre, was the most lethal fighter ever developed by UNSC minds. At 75ft in length it was smaller then its cousins, the longsword and broadsword. Six had piloted one during the insurrection of Mamore, and once more over Reach. He was a pretty damn good pilot, having earned medals for his piloting skills. He pushed away thoughts of his past and loaded the bags into the small hold under the cockpit. With them stowed away he climbed in.

He ran a flight checklist, the ship was still in good condition, the tanks were full, the grade-a titanium battle plate was brand new, and the ammo reels were primed and loaded. So with the pre-flight checklist complete, Six started it up. With a deep throaty roar the engines began to cycle. The whole aircraft vibrated with barely repressed potential. He could feel it through the thick metal souls of his armored boots, and in his chair. Six began to feel at home in the cockpit, here he could do some real good. No Covenant ship could take him down when he was in control. None have, and none ever will.

When the engine whine reached a crescendo he pushed the throttle. With a explosion of noise the Sabre lifted off into the sky, trailing exhaust fumes and smoke. The incredible g-force pushing the spartan into the form-fitting gel seat. The skies were dark now, the stars could be seen clearly, sparkling, as could the shadows of the Covenant fleet orbiting overhead. The massive armada blotting out whole constellations. As he gained altitude, Six checked his armaments. The Sabre had two M1024 ASW/AC 30mm ALA Cannons, and Medusa missile pods.

The Sabre was perhaps the only vehicle the UNSC had ever built that could stand up to its Covenant counter part so easily. The Sabre had shielding. No other vehicle in the UNSC arsenal had that. It allowed it to go toe-to-toe with the seraph fighters. In point of fact, they were in many ways superior. Six had shot down a number of seraphs, exoatmospheric banshees, and phantom gunboats while in the cockpit of a Sabre.

As he rocketed into the sky, Six prepared himself for the end. It was only a matter of time before the armada above spotted him and launched a squadron. Speak of the devil, just as he reached the outer atmosphere a cloud of fighters emerged from the belly of a purplish corvette. It was like watching a great beast of the ocean relieving itself of parasites. The swarm of attack craft closed in on the lone spartan.

Six grinned underneath his helmet. This is what spartans were bred for. To face unbeatable odds and come out victorious. He kicked in the afterburner and closed in on the closest enemy ship. The ebony and amaranthine tear dropped visage of a seraph strike-craft was his first target. It closed in at high speeds and launched a coupling of laser pulses. Six banked hard to the right, and fired back with the rotary cannons. The seraphs assault missed, the sapphire bolts grazing his ship and draining the shields slightly. His though, did not. The grouping of superheated projectiles slammed into the alien ship, and with a flash of light, tore its shield to pieces. Before it could maneuver away to recover, Six fired a pair of medusa rockets. The twin trails of exhaust chased after the fleeing starship and impacted against the rear, shearing it off before detonating in a dazzling display of sparks and bits of shattered metal.

While this happened, the other Covenant aggressors did not stand idle. Six had to quickly enact an aileron role, and turn hard to the left to dodge a retaliatory pulse bombardment. Eight seraphs had begun to doggedly tail him, trying to nail him with their plasma cannons. It took all the skills he had earned to evade his pursers. Even with the pack of spacecraft hounding him, he managed to fire off a salvo of medusa missiles, which plowed into a grouping of banshees. The contingent of smaller craft were completely pulverized by the high explosive armor piercing torpedoes.

Six flew through the wreckage and dived. The brief loss of eye contact allowed him to disappear into the blackness of space. Still their sensors would detect him eventually, Six needed to prepare. He used the extra time to recharge his depleted shields and to checkup on his ammo. So far, he was still in the green. With that out of the way he turned to the left and up. Now underneath the pack of seraphs, he flew up and blazed away at them with his 30mm cannons and fired a small round of missiles as an afterthought. The 30mm shells ripped through the shields of the unsuspecting craft. Then, as a coup de grâce, the medusa warheads gutted the now vulnerable strike-craft. They exploded in stunning display of pyrotechnics, shooting shards of molten metal and broken corpses through the empty and airless vacuum.

Six knew that he couldn't do this forever, he needed to act swiftly. So the spartan powered past his foes and approached the closest cruiser. As he neared he prepared himself for his end. Within ten kilometers of his target, a strange whirlpool like distortion in space materialized before him. The Sabre was going to fast to correct his course, and so with a furious and disappointed growl the, the spartan and his craft sped into the rippling portal.

"Dammit T-bone, the Pastmaster is getting away!" The frustrated voice of Razor, the RIO officer aboard the Turbokat, exclaimed. Half an hour ago Callie Briggs had called them on her personal communicator and told them of a theft. They had been working in the scrap lot when the call had come in, forcing them to stop and rush into their secret underground base. Now they found themselves chasing the crazed feline through the city.

"Calm down Razor, he's not going anywhere without a ride!" T-bone said determinedly. They were chasing the undead sorcerer, who was astride a pterodactyl, cackling madly. He had just robbed the Megakat City Museum. The evil Kat had nabbed some sort of strange trinket, and was attempting to make off with it, emphasis on 'attempting'.

"Fire the buzz-saw missile!" T-bone ordered.

"On it!" With a flip of a top and press of a button, Razor fired. The buzz-saw missile shot out from under the Turbokat. The rotating blades collided with the wings of the aerial dinosaur and sent it tumbling towards the ground shrieking in agony. It was a little brutal, but it had to be done. The Pastmaster could not get away.

"Nooooo!" The villainous feline shouted in anger as he fell off the wounded beast, and landed on a tower. He would not allow himself to be foiled again! Not when he had one last trick up his sleeve. He took out his pocket-watch and fiddled with the recently heisted trinket. If it all worked out, a portal to another plan would open above the city, and he could escape with his prize. Within moments he was ready.

"Hey, what's going on?" Razor asked in confusion. It appeared that the diminutive orange Kat had opened one of his usual portals, but something was wrong. It was swirling erratically and pulsing in a strange variety of colors.

"I don't know Razor, but I'm pretty sure it's not a good thing." T-bone muttered darkly. The few times that they had been sucked in had not been fun. Last time they had went into the future...it wasn't fun.

"Look! Something's coming out!" Razor exclaimed in dreaded anticipation.

Six emerged out of the thrice damned portal and into...a city? What the hell? He had spent only seconds in the mind-bending tunnel, and now he was...where? This was way beyond anything he had experienced before. He could honestly admit he did not know what in the hell was going on. From the looks of it this was a pre space-age society, he could see the undefinable figures of the planets populace underneath him. From this distance they looked human, except for some strange things trailing behind their backs.

As he streaked through the skies of the strange city he circled back to the portal, trying to reenter before it closed. Just as he reached it, it collapsed with a bang. Six snarled in impotent anger and smashed his gauntlet into the paneling of the center console. Luckily he did not break anything. It seemed as though he was now stranded here...wherever here is. He put the Sabre into hover and began to plan his next move.

"A jet?" Razor mumbled in surprise. This was the first time something of any modern aspect appeared from the Pastmasters portals.

"Not just any jet!" T-bone said in wonder. "That thing is beautiful. I've never seen one quite like it, besides the Turbokat."

"What do we do now?" Razor asked. Usually he was the one coming up with the planes. He decided to defer to T-bone's call on this one.

"Let's get a closer look." The intrigued Kat suggested and brought the Turbokat around to inspect this strange craft.

Meanwhile, a disgruntled and furious undead sorcerer vanished. If they had paid attention they would have seen the outline of a wounded dinosaur with a cloaked figure set off into the forests near the city.

Six was rapidly trying to formulate a plan. Stranded on a unfamiliar planet, he couldn't just fly into space, he didn't have enough fuel to get anywhere. He would just find himself stranded in the vast emptiness, where he would slowly and ignobly die of oxygen deprivation. What he needed was intel, and lots of it. He had to know what they are, how advanced they are, and how he could get out of here and back to the UNSC. He still had a fight to win.

That's when he noticed a strange aircraft zoom towards him. It was not of any Covenant design, it actually closely resembled ancient humanities atmospheric fighters. The black and red pigmented jet closed in.

He didn't want to greet the locals just yet so he kicked in the afterburners and tried to lose them. He sped through the skyscrapers of the city and hung low, trying to lose them in the spires of iron. Whoever they were, they were exceptional talented pilots. Six was having a hell of a time trying to evade them. Even in the Sabre they stayed on his tail. They played a game of cat and mouse weaving through the city.

Six pulled an incredibly risky move, he dived straight for the surface street. Just before impact he pulled up on the stick and banked right, he circled around a skyscraper and then rammed the throttle lever viciously. The Sabre replied with a roar and shot up into the skies. It kept going until he lost sight of the city. He continued till he was in the upper atmosphere. He put it in hover and waited. He floated there for fifteen minutes, cockpit silent as death.

Six used the time to once more evaluate his current situation. He was almost undoubtedly stranded on a foreign planet, for all he knew this wasn't even the same section of the galaxy, or universe. What what he do now? No contact with the UNSC, no means of leaving the planet (without dying eventually), and he had limited resources. He had believed that he would die, so he had not packed any nutritional supplies. He was truly in dire straits. But it mattered not, he was a spartan, the definition of adaptability and lethality. Wherever Six was he would thrive, no questions about it.

He shut the hover function off and glided down to a normal altitude. He needed supplies, and he spotted a forest outside that city. A perfect place to hunt and set up a temporary base of operations. He could monitor the settlement and discern what lived there and if they had some sort of means of leaving the planet. Maybe he was lucky and they were humans, that would make things easier.

So with that somewhat positive notion, Six flew the Sabre to the huge forest just outside that town. Not wanting to be detected again he skimmed the tree line as he looked for a location to stash his jet. Soon he found a wide enough clearing and landed his Sabre. Six climbed out, and jumped out of the cockpit. His half ton weight indenting the soles of his boots into the dry dirt with a puff of displaced air. He surveyed his surroundings. The site was deep in the forest, farther then anyone would bother to go, he hoped.

The clearing was approximately one hundred and fifty meters circularly, perfect for his needs. Six would have to work diligently to set up his base of operations. The next hour was spent checking the area for any threats, beside some animals he was completely alone. Six had not found any signs of bipedal life. Once satisfied, he shifted his focus to construction. He didn't really need a shelter, but he built one anyways. With great strength he ripped a few trees out of their mooring and molded them into a small cabin-like housing. If anything, Six could use it as a means of shelter against small arms fire.

After much deliberation he placed his duffle-bags inside the construct. It would be closer to his reach in the event of an ambush. In case others stumbled across his dwelling he put them under a pile of logs, only he would be strong enough to lift them. Dusting of his gauntlets he stepped outside his shelter. The sky was darkening, night would fall soon. He gathered the splintered limbs from the trees he uprooted. Six then built a roaring fire in the front of his temporary home.

His MJOLNIR would keep him warm but he understood the physiological aspects of fire. And maybe he could go hunting and find some real food to eat. All Six had left was some ration packs from the Sabre's emergency kit. He needed to save those. He unsheathed his KA-BAR, the twenty two inch ebony blade had been with him since his first days as a spartan. He had killed countless insurrectionists and Covenant troops alike with it. Now it would get him a meal, like his time in basic, when he had gone hunting with it. The trainees had only been allowed knives in their survival courses. His instructor had personally given him the knife, it had been unwieldy when he was still a child. But by the time his training had finished and he donned the armor of a spartan, it felt at home in his grip.

Six left his base and ventured forth into the forest. He was looking for any sort of prey animal, he was looking for something like deer or rabbits. His tracking skills were more then sufficient, discovering a trail less then five minutes after beginning the hunt. Six followed it to a small river, perfect! A source of fresh water! Stealthily climbing into a massive tree, (thankfully his weight did not snap the thick branch he crouched on), he waited for his prey.

He waited, patient, unmoving, his armor silent. Not even the tree creaked under his incredibly bulk. Six was focused on the hunt, hawkish blue eyes scouring the environment for any sign of movement. An hour later they zeroed in on a shape coming out from the undergrowth. A deer? He had expected something alien, not a deer like the ones on Reach. No matter, Six needed food, and here it was. His knife was ready, now he waited for the animal to reach the river. It hesitantly meandered to the crystalline pure blue water, and began to lap at its surface.

Six exploded into movement, he lunged from his spot and towards the unsuspecting cervine. He fell onto its back, snapping the spine and quickly rammed his knife into its lower jaw. He rolled off and looked at his unfortunate prey. The brown furred animal had died swiftly, a clean kill. He wiped his bloody blade on the fur of the deceased deer and then dipped it in the river before sheathing it in his chest harness.

Six grabbed the carcass and dragged it away from his river, he had to gut it in another location. That should keep predators away from his source of water. Not that he couldn't handle them, he just didn't want them to scare off his food supply. Once far enough away he gutted and cleaned the body with the swiftness of experienced hands. He dumped the gruesome offal in a small hole he dug with his hands and buried it.

Then he carried the deer on his shoulders, it hardly weighed anything to him, all the way back to his camp. The fire he had built was still going, he set the carcass down on a log away from his shelter and began to saw off a strip of meat with his knife. He pulled one of the twigs off the log and jammed it through the venison. Six sat by the fire and roasted his meal. The stick was implanted in the ground over the fire and then he brought his gauntlets up to his helmet. He placed his armored fingers on the seals and twisted it slightly to the right. With the hiss of displaced air, the helm was removed and placed on the floor beside him.

He took in a deep breath, it had been a very long time since he had taken it off. His nose was greeted with the appetizing scent of cooking meat and the natural odor of the forest. He gazed up into the stars with his naked eyes, these stars did not have an armada blocking them from view, Six found it quite beautiful. He placed his gauntlets behind his helmetless head, pressing against his stark black hair, and laid back onto the brittle dry grass, the fan stalks crackled under his suit. His sapphire eyes gazed up into the sky.

Six was far from home, but he was content.

Jake Clawson however was anything but. The dark brown Kat paced around the garage. His boots making a clacking sound that was slowly driving his friend mad.

Chance Furlong was working on a car, the only visible portion of his body were his shoes sticking out from under the truck. "Calm down Jake, your gonna wear a whole into the floor."

"How can you be so calm!" Jake muttered. "An unknown ship came out of the Pastmasters portal, and out-flew us! Now we have no idea of where it went or what it's doing, or even of who was piloting it!" The Kat ranted.

Chance wheels out from under the truck, the tan bulky feline looked at his friend. "Worrying about that isn't going to help, what's bugging you really? Your always the levelheaded one."

"No ones ever outflown us." He grumbled in response.

"Oh so that's it eh?" Chance smirked. "Well then shouldn't I be the most upset? I was the one flying after all."

Jake sighed and sat down on the stool by the front desk. "I suppose your right, but doesn't it irk you?"

Chance looked thoughtful. "Honestly it does a little, but something tells me that whoever that was, they weren't bad. If they were they would have done something."

Jake chuckled ruefully. "Would you look at that, Chance Furlong, acting so wise and calm."

Chance walked over and slugged jake on the arm. "Don't go spreading that around I gotta reputation to maintain."

"Jeez don't, worry I won't tell everyone of your change of heart." Jake said sarcastically, rubbing his arm.

"Damn right you won't!" His friend chuckled. "Now help me fix this truck, the owner is coming back tomorrow." The duo went on to work on the truck, although they both thought about their mystery pilot.


	2. Chapter 2

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 2: A Strange World

Six had slept for hours. His slumber was undisturbed, no one and no thing wandered into his camp during the night. Now came the boring task of preparing for his excursion into the city. First things first he began the process of curing the rest of the meat from the deer. He would need the supplies in the days to come.

Once that was done, Six made sure his rifle, shotgun, and pistol were in top form. He spent the better part of an hour oiling and reassembling his firearms. With a clang of metal he pulled back the slide of his magnum, now ready for use. He was loathed to leave the Sabre and his extra weapons and ammo behind, by he knew he couldn't feasibly take them with him where ever he went.

Six left the meat to smoke, he doubted the forest would burn to the ground in his absence, and sojourned into the thick foliage. He had a rough estimation as to where the city was, if he was right, it was twenty to twenty five kilometers distant. A lite jog for a spartan, Six made good time, running at 50km an hour, he would arrive in thirty or so minutes. When he stopped at his destination he would begin to gather intel, discovering if they were humans or any other species they had encountered before. Then, if need be, he would abduct one of the inhabitants gather what he needed and then...remove them.

That option bothered Six, he had done it before, but it always made him feel sick. He was a soldier, not a murderer. He settled on leaving that as a last resort, he hoped that it wouldn't come down to that. His troubled mind let the time fly as he sprinted through the massive green forest. The spartan deftly dodging branches and bushes as he navigated to his destination. He was so distracted he almost ran out into the open, he stopped swiftly, leaving a ruined trail of dirt. His momentum and weight plowed a furrow in the ground. Six activated his MJOLNIR's vision mode. He began to study the metropolis he planned to infiltrate.

The spartan was, for the second time in as many days, baffled. It seemed that the people of this world were...cats...yeah...cats. Bipedal felines draped in the trappings of twenty fourth century humanity no less. Six watched these...people, go about their lives. He had stopped outside what looked like a public park. Kids...or kittens?, ran and tumbled playfully in the grassy plains, parents watched from the benches. It reminded the spartan of the vids he had scene of the garden worlds of the UNSC, all you had to do was replace the humans with anthropomorphic felines.

The Spartan was stumped, this was easily one of the last things he had expected. Luckily he was still concealed by the closely intertwined trees of the forest. All he had to do was survey the area, and then wait till nightfall and make his move. None of the cat people would venture here, he was sure of it.

"Hello mister monster, your awfully tall!" A young voice exclaimed in wonder behind him.

Six drooped his helmet and sighed, the chin clanking against the titanium alloy of his chestplate. Why was his luck so poor? He turned his huge frame reluctantly to see a little feline child staring at him, the grey kitten's big brown eyes gazed at Six unblinkingly, making the spartan uneasy. Judging from the proportions of the body, the kid was around seven and was a boy. Six was frozen, what should he do?

"Are you gonna eat me mister monster?" The kid asked innocently.

That surprisingly forced a chuckle out of the solitary spartan. "I don't eat little kids, even if they are animals." The first words he said in along time, made his already deep voice sound rough and menacing.

The little Kat flinched and whimpered, the small stuffed Kat animal he was holding fell from his grasp. Six began to feel a tiny bit bad. The spartan picked up the the plushie and gently returned it. His gauntlets eclipsed the minuscule kids paws. "Here kid, you dropped this."

The child hesitantly retrieved it from the spartan's giant hands. "T-thank y-you mister m-m-monster." The scared Kat stuttered.

Six sighed again. "Look kid, I'm not a monster."

"R-really?"

"Yes." The spartan grunted.

"What are you then?" The Kat child was no longer scared, he was now curios, a prospect that Six was not pleased with.

"A traveller from the stars." No need to go into detail he thought to himself.

"Like an alien!" The kitten yowled excitedly.

"Don't you have parents to go to." Six muttered, this small fry was trying his patience.

The kid began to mewl again. "I-I I'm lost." He sniffled.

Six exhaled heavily once more. Spartans are engines of war, not goddamn daycare employees. "Good luck finding them." He grunted dismissively and began to tread away, boots thumping softly at his passing. He could always recon another day.

"Wait mister alien!" The kid cried out running up to cling to the spartan's tree trunk of a leg. "Can you help me?" The kid looked up into Six's midnight black visor and gave him the most pathetic and pleading eyes he had ever seen. It eroded his stoic spartan mentality.

"Ugh fine, but how?" Six caved in.

The kid beamed happily when he heard the alien's response, and then his face fell. "Uh I don't know."

"Great, what were your parent wearing?" Six grumbled, stomping back over to the tree-line.

The kitten stumbled after him, Stumbling over the unearthed roots and rocks. "Well mommy was wearing a purple dress and dad had a brown coat on." The child said helpfully, desperately trying to keep up with the spartans wider steps and grueling pace.

Six used his visor mode to run a cross pattern, looking for the colors purple and brown together. Usually that function was for singling out Covenant HVTs, now it would be used to find a Kat kids parents. Once more Six was reminded of how ludicrous his situation was. It took him only moments to find the kids parents, honestly he didn't even need the visor, he could see two kats panicking and running around the park. They were almost certainly looking for the kitten standing next to him. "There're your parents kid." The spartan pointed them out with an ebony gauntlet.

The kid scrunched his feline eyes and leaned forward ridiculously, as if that would actually help. "Yay!" The kid yipped and began to run out of the forest when he recognized them. Six turned to walk away, before he could disappear into the foliage he heard the child's voice again. "Hey! Mister alien?"

"What?" He growled, turning back around.

"Thanks!"

"Oh...well...uh...your welcome." The massive spartan said awkwardly. He didn't know how to respond to gratitude, no one had displayed it to him before.

"Good bye!" The kitten ran out of view. Six resumed leaving, this time a tiny bit thoughtful. He didn't stay to watch the kid go back to his family, why would he? With one last look back, the spartan faded into the forest.

Jake and Chance were walking in the park. They had returned the truck to its owner and stopped at the Megakat City Park. The truck had taken all of yesterday to fix, now they could relax. It was nice to get away from the stress and pressures of being the SWAT Kats, and mechanics every once and awhile. "See Jake, isn't this nice?"

"Yeah, you were right Chance." Jake agreed. They were walking the trail on the outskirts of the park. Both were wearing their casual clothes, shoes, a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt.

"Back when we still worked for the enforcers I used to come down here and relax, look at all the people. It helped me remember why we joined when Feral gave us a tough time." Chance explained walking with his muscular arms behind his tawny furred head. His expression was one of remembrance, as he fondly returned his mind to those long passed days.

Before Jake could tease his friend, he was bowled over by a couple running by. Jake sat up indigently and was about to go off when he saw the two kats pick up a kitten. Both of them were crying tears of relief.

"Where did you go?" The grey pigmented mother demanded, eyes still leaking.

"I got lost in the forest mommy." The child answered hugging his mother tightly. "But then a big monster helped me!" He added excitedly.

"What do you mean Jeremy?" The white furred father asked, baffled.

"Well he said he wasn't a monster but an alien! And then it was walking away and I asked it to help me and it did and it showed me where you guys were so I left and here I am now!" The small child blabbered not stopping for even a moment.

Jake and Chance froze. Monster? Alien? That must be the pilot of the mysterious craft! But what was it doing in the forest? Maybe he was hiding out there. "Hey Jake, you think we should go looking for it?"

"I don't know chance, seems like a bad idea. We don't know where it is or even how strong it is. Rushing in blindly would do us little good."

"Makes sense, I guess we should call it a day." Jake and Chance walked back to their tow truck and climbed inside. It would be pointless to worry about the stranger right now, as they couldn't do a thing about it. "So, where do you wanna eat?"

"How about Katline's Dinner?"

"Alright, I could use a burger, or four!" Chance said, his stomach growled its agreement.

Jake chuckled as Chance drove the truck down the street. "Sometimes I wonder who is really in control of your body."

Callie Briggs was in her small apartment in Megakat tower. The Calico Kat was nibbling on a sandwich with her needle thin teeth. She was watching the news. The female feline brought the sandwich halfway to her muzzle and froze when she looked at the tv.

There was a female reporter standing at an intersection somewhere in the city regaling a ground breaking story. "This is Ann Gora from Kats Eye News, reporting live in the streets of Megakat City. Earlier today the SWAT Kats battled with the Pastmaster once again over the skies of this fine city. Only this time, something new occurred."

They cut too an amateur's phone video, the rendition was blurry and out of focus. The Pastmaster's portal opened and instead of the usual ancient creature, a huge fighter craft emerged. Ann Gora narrated while the shoddy recording continued. "The SWAT Kats were seen chasing the unknown craft through the air until they lost its trail. That begs the question, who was piloting this mysterious plane? How could they have escaped from the SWAT Kats? And perhaps the biggest one, where is it now?" The news switched to commercials leaving the questions as food for thought.

Callie still held her lunch in her paws, she set it down and got up leaving it unfinished. This was serious, an unknown player had entered the game, and they were skilled enough to outrun the SWAT Kats. This was bad news, the city had enough problems, and the mayor never bothered to worry about them. Callie sighed, it looks like this would have to be handled by her, like all the other ones. She grabbed her purse and keys as she walked out of her apartment. The determined feline had work to do.

Six arrived back at his campsite. He cautiously entered the clearing, magnum drawn. After accessing the area and coming to the conclusion that it was secure, he returned the huge handgun to its mag-locked position.

The day had only just begun and the spartan was already troubled. His life had turned to the bizarre. Six was starting to wish that he had stayed on Reach. It would have been the easier option. But it didn't matter, he was here now so he would just have to cope.

The spartan made his way over to the Sabre and lugged out a large trunk. The chest was filled with sensor beacons and other things, it was a relatively new addition to Sabres. The scientists in their infinite wisdom decided that fighters would need things like this, ironically Six did need them. He flipped the latches and raised the lid. Gently, he removed the first sensor, the small angular devices would be placed in equidistant locations around his camp's perimeter. Once linked up to his MJOLNIR, they would warn him of any breaches. They would allow him to rest easily.

Six took almost no time to set up the small gadgets. When finished he returned to the fire, the deer was almost done. When it finished he would store it. The extra food would go along way in extending his survival on this foreign world. The spartan sat near the fire, his armored legs tucked under him waiting.

As he waited for nightfall and the smoked deer, Six started to feel weird. What was a spartan to do if he had no enemy to fight? That was his purpose, why he was changed. Now that he was stranded on this strange world he had no commanding officer, no one to guide him. Neither did he have any men to lead, no brothers in arms. That last part didn't bother Six much, he was always a lone wolf. It was the absence of a command structure that was the kicker.

What was a spartan to do when he had nothing but himself? He realized that even if he returned to the UNSC, the war would end eventually, wether in extinction or victory. And loath as he was to admit it, he wasn't a valuable resource to them. The spartan III's were expendable fodder for humanity. They weren't as valued as the II's. Even he, Spartan-B312, the most lethal and dangerous of all the III's was considered lesser then his progenitors. It didn't show, and he probably didn't even know, but it hurt him, deep inside buried under all the psycho-indoctrination, was a cavernous hole, filled with pain.

It didn't matter if the war ended with humanity as the winner, Six didn't have any family, all III's were orphans of the war. He didn't remember his family, his parents or even if he had siblings. Six didn't even remember his own name, it wasn't on his armor. The only identification was his ID: Spartan-B312, NOBLE SIX. A serial number, his designation. The spartan gently traced the studded title on his chestplate, armored digits shaking imperceptibly. Spartans, the sacrificial saviors of humanity, forever lost to their commitment to a people they would never be apart of.

Six dragged himself back to reality, spartans didn't pity themselves. They were made of sterner stuff. He needed to return his focus to his predicament, he had work to do.

He looked back to the fire, the deer meat was done. He wrapped it up in some large leaves from a strange plant he discovered and stored it his barren cabin. Soon night would be upon him and he could take a closer look at the city of felines, wow, it was still hard to believe. Six almost expected that when he returned that he was hallucinating and that the Kats were really humans. It was a hopeless thought so he didn't invest much into it.

Six let the fire die out. He was about to head into the city and didn't know how long he would be gone. He wasn't worried about his camp. The sensors would alert him if anything approached it while he was out Intel gathering. Six checked his weapons again, (it was a habit that would stay with him for the rest of his life), and marched into the forest.

This time he arrived at the city's edge in only twenty minutes, causing him to grin. It seemed that he was still one of the fastest. Night had fallen sometime on his journey to this outlandish metropolis. Not a single thing moved in the park, it was as lifeless as Reach now was. Six felt a pang of sorrow in his heart, but he brushed it off and with hesitant steps, walked into the open.

The spartan stealthily prowled onto the emerald grass. Despite the tremendous weight of his MJOLNIR, he didn't make a sound. Swiftly, Six crossed the wide open spaces of the park and into the city proper. As he crouched in the underbrush right outside, he couldn't help but watch its inhabitants as they went about their lives.

It was odd, they all seemed to be in such high spirits. Families walked, most likely to their homes, laughing and talking animatedly amidst themselves. He could also detect some strange music fluttering through the air. The lone spartan felt a twinge of...something, longing? Loneliness? He didn't know. As he sat their in the darkness away from the bustling life of the city, he did know one thing, he didn't belong here.

Callie stomped out of Enforcer Headquarters. She had just finished a shouting match with Commander Feral. She growled as she thought back to it. What a pompous ass! She had gone to talk to him about this worrisome development and he had brushed it off. She fumed as she remembered what he said.

"If the SWAT Kats hadn't ruined everything, the enforcers would have taken care of the Pastmaster, and that strange ship!" Feral had growled.

She had really gone off on him then. By the time the 'conversation' was over they both had agreed on nothing. Callie stormed off into the street and headed back to her apartment, her foul mood was abated by the holiday music floating in the air. It calmed down the disgruntled feline. She felt a little wet spot on the bridge of her narrow muzzle, her vertical slitted eyes studied the object, it was snowing! She smiled happily and let her concerns drift away for the moment, now she would just listen to the pleasant music and head back home.

Unfortunately, she was so distracted she didn't notice that she took the wrong way, going down an unfamiliar alley. It wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the seven malevolent looking Kats that followed her in.

Six activated his cloak and covertly stalked into the city. He knew that the best way to get around would be on the rooftops. So still concealed, he climbed up one of the vertical faces of a brick building. He dug his gauntlets into the mortar and made his own handholds. Effortlessly he surmounted the structure. Once on the roof Six began to head further into the city. First he would scope out any military or militia forces and gauge their strength, the he would find out who was in charge of this place. Before he could continue he heard a feminine cry of pain, Six froze mid step. He turned to look down into the refuse filled alley that he heard the shout originate from.

There was a female of this strange feline race, she was cornered by seven males. It didn't take a genius to figure out their despicable and vile plot. He had no investment in this world, but his honor would not stand such an injustice.

These were the things that unleashed his inner pent up rage. Six had seen more then enough of this type of sicking business in his black-ops operations during the insurrection. Those times though, he had to let it go to remain undetected, it had inflamed his impotent fury to let those crimes go unpunished. Now, he could do something, so he took a running jump off the building.

She was terrified, these Kats had snuck up on her while she was distracted. The leader, a huge tabby Kat, walked up to her slowly arms splayed unthreateningly. "You look lost little lady." His voice was oily and cruel. She backed up further, pressing her carmine coat against the grime of the wall, her triangular ears pressed flat agains her head. "What's wrong girl, do I scare you?" The last part was flecked with sarcasm and a disturbing darkness. His goons chuckled maliciously at his wisecrack.

"S-s-stay a-a-away." She stuttered in fear sliding further away from them.

"Oh look boys she is scared!" The leader smirked and pressed forward, fully intending some unspeakable evil. He took another step to his unlucky prey.

The entire alley shook and there was a thunderous boom as something impacted the pavement in front of her. Callie fell down from the shockwave and crawled backwards. Whatever landed had shaken up a cloud of dirty dust and debris, when it cleared, a massive armored figure was in a kneeling crouch. It had a huge gauntleted fist cratered in the ground, the cement around him was ruined, pulverized by the strength of his arrival.

The armored stranger slowly rose up to his almost eight foot height and looked down menacingly at the Kats in front of him. His armor was the same shade as the reaper of souls, it was not really black, it was the absence of all light. It even seemed to dim the tiny fluorescent bulbs decorating the walls. The ebony giant growled menacingly at the cowering, once intimidating thugs. It was like watching an apex-predator stand among the lower echelons, the dregs. Callie was so terrified she almost fainted, was she now in more trouble then earlier?

"What exactly...were you going to do?" It snarled in a rough hissing voice. At the sound of it Callie felt shivers go down her spine and through her tawny tail, making it bristle. The thugs had a much more visible reaction.

The leader tried to turn tail and run, emphasis on try. The giant grabbed the fleeing coward two-handed (by the tail), and slammed him into the wall with a stomach curdling crunch.

As the others tried to flee the thing quickly caught up and tore them apart. It swiftly wrenched the farthest two back and onto the floor with duel thuds, they stopped moving. Now only numbering four they pushed each other in their desperation to escape. It rammed a fist into the closest Kat and lifted him into the air with the force of the blow. Not wasting a move, it dragged its elbow back down to pile-drive it into the next victim. The poor Kat was smashed into the ground.

The last two cowered and fell to their knees and began to plead. The living embodiment of darkness strode over and picked them both up off the floor like they were infants still wrapped in swaddling. He brought his solid obsidian death mask to their muzzles and growled like a beast. "You filth sicken me!" The thing barked in its bass toned articulation. "Your deaths will make this world a better place." It hissed, all the while squeezing his gauntlets, tightening slowly and meticulously. Soon their pleas for mercy chocked off into gasps for breath.

"Please stop!" Callie looked around to see who had dared to speak in this demons presence, and was horrified to realize it was her.

The creature halted its murder and looked over to the person that had interrupted its dark justice. "You would have me spare this trash?" It asked in wonder, shaking the two in his grip like lifeless rag-dolls. "These rapists, and those no doubt responsible for many more heinous crimes?"

"Yes." She said, surprise at her own conviction.

"Why?" The creature begged almost sounding like a child in his confusion, like when you smacked their paw and scolded them for doing something they believed was right.

"They should get a fair trial." She answered firmly.

The creature chuckled grimly. "Fair trial? Is not the evidence here damning?" He gestured around the alley, still holding on to his struggling victims. "Why wait when I can dole out the sentence here and save the system trouble?"

"I-I-I..." She began to stumble, not finding an answer.

The monster chuckled again, now rueful, and tightened his grip suddenly, the two Kats went limp and he tossed them to the ground. "They still live, as do the others. I hope you enjoy your victory." It turned to walk away, but not before shifting its charcoal black helm to gaze at her. "I though, would not forget this was your choice." It growled and disappeared.

Callie fell back onto the wall and let to of the breath she had not realized she held captive in her chest. Them she gathered up her tattered courage and dialed a number on her phone. "This is Callie Briggs, the mayors aide, I would like to report a mugging."


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Sorry about the delay, some things came up and I had to slow down on my writing. Now the matter has been felt with, I should be back to my usual upload rate. All that aside, I would be thrilled to have some feed back.

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 3: Unusual Attraction

Jake and Chance were back at the yard, working on yet another car. It was late into the night, but their thankless job was unending. It required almost all of their free time. They knew that they probably would never pay off the restitution for the damaged enforcer headquarters, but it didn't bother them. As long as they worked here, they would do their best as the SWAT Kats in defending Megakat City. "Chance pass me the nine incher." Jake ordered from underneath the small convertible. The radiator was cracked and had to he replaced, a dirty but relative easy job.

"Sure thing Jake, it's the least I could do considering I can't fit down there." Chance chuckled going through the toolbox and pulling out the asked for wrench, and handing it over.

Jake's paw shot out from under the tiny car and latched onto the gadget before pulling it out of sight. "Yeah yeah whatever." He went back to work under the vehicle, muttering to himself absently.

It would be along time yet before they could get some rest.

Six stayed on the roof of the brick building, watching over that infuriating cat women until whatever police force they had arrived. Even though he revealed himself, he wasn't upset, he had done a good deed. And it may actually be a positive thing, he would be able to get a sense of how they worked, and what opinion they would have of the spartan. So in the future he would know whether or not reveling himself fully would be a smart idea. The night as it turned out, was not a total loss.

He thought back to his brief conversation with her, what a foolish and misguided species. He scoffed internally, 'fair trail', the scum should have perished by his hand. And that is what made Six itch under his MJOLNIR, why did he listen to the women? What was it about that feline that had given her that power? He would need to watch her carefully until he figured it out, the camp will be fine without him for a few days.

A primitive car drove up to the alley, (a petroleum based engine if his augmented ears and nose stood correct), and came to a stop. Out stepped a modestly armed officer (Six noted the exotic looking handgun holstered to the kat's thigh), and another female, both in grey and blue uniforms with a crest on their shoulders and their chests that could only belong to the city's defenders. As the duo approached the women in the alley, the spartan honed his hearing on them, utilizing the MJOLNIR's superior audio enhancing capabilities and his own stellar perception. He wanted to get a feel for this world's police if he was to be staying here for the foreseeable (and most likely permanent) future.

"Are you alright Ms. Briggs?" The other female asked worriedly, gazing at the beaten forms of her attempted attackers. They slowed to a stop when they fully took in the sight before them.

Six studded this smokey hued feline, she had a remarkable fur coloring on her head, black and white locks. The girl had an air about her that reminded him of Kat, a tough but all-around kind spartan. She had been hard on Six when he first joined Nobel, but he didn't mind. He was a replacement after all. He wasn't thrilled with his new role either. When she had died it had saddened and enraged him, that was no death fit for a spartan. Voices brought him out of his nostalgia.

"I'm fine Felina, although I still can't believe why." The now identified women, this...'Briggs' replied tiredly, idly shuffling her paws for warmth as she stood in the frigid winter air.

"What happened here?" Feline asked in amazement as she took in once more the thrashed Kats scattered about like the rest if the trash inside the alley. Her brown eyes finally settling on the crater in front of Callie. She could see the imprint of a titanic fist and a massive pair of boots.

She sighed. "You know Felina, I'm still not sure I could say."

"Perhaps you can try?" The other officer walked back to the car and called in for more backup, they didn't have enough room for all these Kats in their squad car.

Callie tried her best to explain. "I was trapped in this alley by these thugs, and before they could do god knows what to me, a monstrous armored thing fell from the rooftops."

Six was offended, he was not a monster! Why did everyone think that? He looked to his self, (a small amount of blood was splattered on his ebony plate, not to mention his height exceeded seven feet). He scrutinized the broken Kats on the floor down there. Maybe... kinda a little...ok, she had a point he muttered internally.

The questioner looked to the rooftops but couldn't see him in the darkness, his obsidian armor foiling even her piercing feline eyes. "And?..."

"Well...then it spoke." She shivered visibly. "I can still remember its voice when it did, deep and menacing. After it finished, it set upon them like a wolf among sheep, they never had a chance, it was terrifying in its rage." Callie dragged the crimson colored coat closed to her trembling frame, her tail was coiled up into her jacket as she sought to keep herself warm.

"What did it do afterwards?" Felina was beyond curious now ears twitching in excitement, she was absolutely enthralled by Callie's tale.

"...it was about to kill the thugs when I stopped it."

"How?" Felina asked intrigued.

"I told it to." Callie replied lamely.

"And it listened?" The other women deadpanned, finding it hard to believe.

"Yes, surprisingly, and then it vanished into thin air." Callie concluded her story, realizing that it might sound a tiny bit fantastical.

"You know, if I didn't know who you were and saw this," she gestured to the unconscious Kats with clawed digits. "I would've called you crazy. But...I believe you."

Callie exhaled in relief, a puff of chilled breath leaving her lungs and floating into the air. "I thought you would have called me crazy!"

"Believe me Callie I want to, this city had enough problems without adding another." Feline muttered tiredly looking up into the night sky.

Six sighed frustratedly, it seems that he would be labeled as a monster. It was something he was sadly intimately familiar with. For his entire existence he heard the remarks. Even his allies in the UNSC called him such, claiming that spartans had no soul. They were just cybernetic machines following orders. Monsters created to fight other monsters.

They always said that about him, even in normal human hearing range. They wanted him to know what they thought, they made very little effort, if any, to keep their derogatory opinions concealed. They didn't understand him, he was still human, but not the kind they were, his mind functioned on a fundamentally different level in most part due to his background, training, and augmentation. But he knew that no one would ever understand. He was turning away, his proud bearing now noticeably slouched, when he heard the voice of the women he saved.

"I don't think it was a problem!" She blurted out, almost defensively. "After all it saved my life, I think that it was a good...guy...thing." She finished her argument rather lamely.

Six felt a feeling of...he didn't know, gratitude? Verification? Maybe finally some one understood him that was not another spartan. Sure it wasn't much, but it was something. He decided to stay a little longer.

"Good?" Felina asked in bafflement, her ears splayed backwards in wonder. "Seriously?"

"It did stop the muggers!" She pointed out...literally, her paws sweeping to show the Kats on the floor. The other car had arrived, a truck, and several officers were uncaringly dragging them to it. Obviously they didn't care for filth like them, they were not gentle.

"I suppose it did." Felina mumbled thoughtfully.

Six tuned out the rest of the conversation, with a small part still listening for keywords. He waited for the police to wrap up his crime scene, the female officer offered a ride but the Callie women turned it down saying she wanted to walk. There was a small argument but she won in the end, and watched the cars pull away with their prisoners. Then she began to walk once more. Six trailed her on the rooftops. For some strange reason he felt the need to continue to watch over her, protect her.

As he followed, he once more took in the sights. It was now snowing in earnest, mounds forming on the top of his helmet and shoulder pauldrons, the air frosting over his visor slightly. He could also hear something, he paused for a second. There it was again! That music! It instilled in him a sense of...peace, and unrest at the same time, something he had never experienced before. He watched as the kat women practically pranced along the sidewalk, heels clicking merrily on the snowy cement.

She looked so happy...and beautiful (Six shrugged that thought off in puzzlement, but found himself thinking like that once more). Her tawny fur sparkled in the moonlight and her expression was not of someone who had almost been mugged. Her muzzle was spread into a wide grin and her sapphire eyes glowed with delight, a complete reversal from her earlier moments. Her strength was astounding to Six, he had seen such resilience only in his fellow soldiers.

He chased after her until she entered a massive skyscraper. The building had a plaque along the doorway, that read Megakat Tower. Six was forced to go to ground level in order to continue his pursuit. Activating his active camouflage, he entered the structure a few seconds after her. He felt a strange desire to stick close to her, it was...troubling to the spartan.

Callie sighed and walked into the foyer, she took of her carmine jacket and folded it in her paws. As she dusted off the snowy flakes, her ears twitched, detecting a faint hum in the air conditioned air. She connected the noise to the generator underneath her hindpaws in the lower levels of the tower. With the source pinpointed, she entered the elevator and pressed the seventieth floor button, she was eager to get home. She thought she saw a shimmer in the air in front of the elevator before the doors slid closed, but she dismissed it as the heat of the foyer interacting with the freezing air of the outside when she opened the door.

Six watched the elevator close, he memorized the number of her floor and headed to the staircase. It may have been daunting to an unaugmented human, but to a spartan it was a lite warm up. He sprinted up all seventy floors in record time, his boots thumping loudly on the concrete. Later, if one were to notice, there were almost imperceptible indents in the crete. Six opened the door to the floor and stepped out just as the elevator opened. He activated his camo, shrouding himself in its invisibility again.

She entered the hallway and walked down the long corridor humming a melodious tune to herself, unaware that she had listener. Six was taken back by the pleasant sound, it resurfaced vague memories of his family and childhood. He had an intense flashback to when he was younger, sitting in his mothers as she hummed to him so that he would sleep peacefully. Six felt icy chills all over his body, that was the exact same tune his mother had used! He was so preoccupied with the mind blowing galactic absurdity that he almost didn't notice when she stopped at her apartment. He shook himself of the strangeness of the world and focused once more on her.

He watched as she fiddled with something in her carry bag, it was a pair of keys. They jingled as she inserted them into the lock and twisted. Six could hear the inner mechanisms shift and click. She tried to open the stubborn door for a few moments, until finally she succeeded. With a grunt she leveraged the obstinate wooden blockade with her shoulders and walked inside. The last thing he saw was her tail slinking in and the door shutting softly. It locked with a gentle click and the tall armored spartan stood outside her door. What would he do now? He had, as usual, more questions then answers. Six needed to figure it out, and soon, the hallway would not be empty forever.

Callie exhaled a sigh of ease, she was back home...her small crowded home *sigh*. She blundered around in the dark until she flicked the light switch, (receiving minuscule bruises and issuing yelps of pain when she discovered items in the darkness). The lights flickered on, their mellow yellow glow adding a homelier vibe to her lonesome living space.

She laid down her purse and hung up her coat. Leaving her wearing a long sleeve shirt and a skirt, having also removed her heels placing them next to her door. She wiggled her freed manicured clawed toes in contentment, the pointed red dyed nails clacking on the tile flooring of the entryway. Then she stretched lithely, loosening her joints with a undetectable pop. She was happy to be back, the day had been a long one.

Now comfortable, she went in search of food. Meandering in to the kitchen, she sighed when she spotted her abandoned sandwich forlornly laying on its ceramic plate on the small island in the cramped kitchen. It had been all but forgotten in her haste to leave her home. "Looks like its leftovers again." She muttered plopping down on her counter stool and gnawing on her cold meal.

Unbeknownst to her, an unfriendly entity stood across from her building on an adjacent rooftop, with a devious plan. A plan, where she would be the victim. "Is everything in place?" It growled questioningly to its underlings. The small flying minions cowered at the sound of his voice and nodded vigorously. "Excellent, the SWAT Kats will be forced to come to the aid of their informant!"

The massive beastly villain chuckled evilly, soon he would have his retribution for the SWAT Kats meddling, they would no longer be a thorn in his side. "Begin the operation!" He snarled to one of his many lackeys. The unfortunate creature was punted to its compatriots violently by a huge booted foot, scattering them. The little monsters took flight, soaring into the air, to soon be upon their prey.

Callie finished her pathetic excuse for a dinner and headed for her bedroom. She looked out to the city's skyline wistfully. She remembered a time when there was no vast array of evil masterminds. Those days had been great, the workload was much lighter and she had free time. Now, there was never time fore it always seemed that at least one of the many blackguards was up to some city leveling plot.

The only saving grace had been the arrival of the SWAT Kats. She didn't even want to imagine where the city would be now without them. But deep down she was afraid, they were only two against many. It would only be a matter of time before they be overwhelmed by the plenitude of evildoers. It was a dark chain of thought, one that should not be considered.

Callie stopped thinking about that, it would not do any good. The best thing to do would he to get some shut eye. So with her next move planned out she was getting ready for bed. As she was about to change into her nightgown, she saw a flicker of movement in the corner of her vision. Curious, she swiveled her head to the large window in her room. She saw a pack of shadows ascend from a nearby building, heading for the tower. Or perhaps, the best guess, her apartment.

This was bad, the shadows began to take shape in the form of little winged gremlins. She felt a sense of dread permeate her furred body, she knew of whom they served. Acting fast she went to her nightstand. The tiny table held her only help. She picked up the special communicator given to her by the SWAT Kats and plugged in the number with shaking paws.

Jake was just finishing the repairs on the convertible (the radiator had been replaced and the car was functional once more) when the communicator began to buzz in his pocket. "Chance, we might have a situation!" He warned his friend as he wormed his hand into his tight pair of jeans and tried to fish out the device.

"Copy that Jake!" Chance shouted and began to close up the mechanic front of their operations.

With that taken care of, Jake answered the gadget. "SWAT Kats." He said in his undercover voice.

"Oh thank god!" The worried voice of Callie vocalized.

"What's the problem Ms. Briggs?" He asked as he headed for the secret underground hanger connected to their workshop.

"I think that Dark Kat is making a move, I see his nasty little creeplings heading to my apartment!" She cried out, he could hear her panting.

Jake began to pick up his already hurried pace. "Got it, we are heading over right now, well be there as soon as possible!"

"Please hurry!" She mewled and hung up. Jake sprinted and vaulted, ignoring the latter, impacting the ground with a thump and ran to his locker. Chance, or now T-bone, was already suited up and prepping the Turbokat.

"What's the situation?" He asked from the cockpit.

"It looks like Dark Kat is trying to abduct Ms. Briggs." Jake replied angrily as he began to hurriedly adorn his vigilante regalia. The outfits of the SWAT Kats were more then they seemed. The navy blue flight suits were treated, with a special mixture, making then resilient to small caliber weapons and blades. They also reduced blunt blunt force trauma for the wearer and were from fitting so that it would not snag on any protrusions during combat.

The suits also had a black harness that was worn on the chest. It stored ammo for the Glovatrix, and provided additional protection.

The Glovatrix was a miraculous invention, arguably the best Jake ever made. It housed a plethora of tools and mini missiles. It was like a Swiss Army knife on steroids. Just some of the few things it contained were a plasma arc torch, buzz-saw blades, lock picks, and grappling hook. It was the signature ground weapon for them.

As Jake (or Razor), fitted on his Glovatrix T-bone started the Turbokat's powerful engines. He flipped acrobatically into the copilot's chair, landing smoothly, and readied it for battle. "Lest go T-bone." He said determinedly, flicking the button that opened the underground launchpad. With a rumble the camouflaged opening was revealed.

"All right buddy, let's rock 'n' roll!" T-bone whooped in response and gunned the engines. The TurboKat fired out of the hidden hanger like a rocket soaring into the sky. They would arrive at Callie's in a few minutes, they both hoped they would not be too late.

Six was still hovering outside her home, passing back and forth. His armor hummed quietly and his heavy steps thunked as he paced, the electroactive crystalline polymer of his undersuit rippled with agitation. It reacted to the tenseness of its operator. He was currently in a fierce inner struggle with himself trying to decide wether to leave or stay. He was confused, why did he feel the need to stay? What was it that attracted him to her? The poor spartan did not have an answer.

He was turning for the fifteenth time when he heard the sound of breaking glass and a scream, followed by the sound of a scuffle. Well at least he had his answer. He took a spartan's minute to contemplate his next course of action, that translated into roughly zero-point-seven-five-seconds, due to his extremely efficient mental processing power and boosted adrenal glands.

Six hoped that she had not simply dropped something, that would make what he was about to do awkward. He charged through the thick wooden door, shattering it into kindling as his armored weight obliterated the obstacle. The spartan maintained his momentum as he searched around the apartment for its owner. Considering its size it took only seconds to find her.

Six barged into her room to an odd sight. It appeared that a pack of beasts, numbering five, were trying to wrest her from her home and out the destroyed window. She was withering in their grip like a snake trying to escape from the talons restraining her. He was surprise to see her clawed footpaws digging into her mattress preventing them from outright lifting her into the air.

Six took a millisecond to study the attackers, short, stubby, and numerous. They reminded him of grunts...flying grunts. Six hated grunts, wings or no wings. He whipped out his magnum from its mag-locked location, sighted his targets and pulled the trigger mechanically. The gun belched black gun-smoke and steel, shell casings flew from the chamber in rapid succession as the weapon roared.

The 12.7mm x 40mm M225 Semi-Armor Piercing High-Explosive/.50 Magnum Caliber Rounds wizzed through the air, the tips parted the very air they soared through. When they hit their intended targets they absolutely destroyed the small beasts. Their bodies partially disintegrating from the sheer power of the bullets.

Callie fell to her bed unceremoniously covered in green goop, the remains of her attempted kidnappers. She looked to her savior with a stunned expression. "You?" Her tone was curious and yet...grateful. She was rubbing her ears tenderly, having been painfully effected by the loud bangs that originated from the spartan's gun.

Six found himself chuckling, this time it rang pleasantly in her ears. "Yes, me." He walked over to the breach and looked for more enemies, magnum still drawn.

She watched the black armored stranger as it stood in the remains of the window. "How did you get here?"

"Oh, I followed you." It said casually still observing the skyline.

She was taken back by that fact. "Why?" She also noticed that she was covered in a smelly foul dark green substance. She came to realize that it was the ruins of her kidnappers. She groaned in disgust and tried her best to wipe it off.

It turned to her, its ebony opaque visor staring at her. "I...am not quite sure yet." The voice was wry, as if it had already thought on the matter deeply.

"Okay..." She replied slowly. Callie didn't know what to think of this individual. So far she had met it twice, both times arriving to save her when in peril. "I guess I should thank you for this and the other time." Callie rose up from her bed, looking back sadly at its shredded form.

It looked uncomfortable when she said that, and shrugged her thanks off. "Uh...yeah...don't worry about it."

She hesitantly pawed over to the giant. As she neared, she noticed it become increasingly jumpy. "Is something the matter?"

"No." It replied flatly and returned its focus to the window, pointedly trying to distance itself

"Oh...okay." She said somewhat deflated. Her savior wasn't very...charming.

Suddenly it raised its weapon and fired off four more shots into the nightsky. Callie could feel the reverberations in her skull. "Why did you do that?" She hissed cradling her head eyeing it angrily.

"More are coming." It explained. "Many more."

"What do we do now?" She asked her protector mood changed from angry to worried.

"Now, we move to a better location. Your home has been compromised, you need to be relocated." The thing moved away from the hole, still keeping itself between her and the new entryway, and walked to the door. She cautiously followed it.

She was puzzled as to why she did. She didn't even know the thing, and she was going to go with it. Her decision was finalized when she returned her gaze to the broken window and pools of green slime.

Six headed for the stairs, with Callie in tow. As he thudded down the corridor in front of the feline he couldn't help but feel befuddled. Why was he putting so much effort in protecting this native? He should have just left her after dealing with the attackers, now he was jeopardizing all of his plans, for her. He opened the metal door to the stairs. Before he could enter he felt a tug on his bandolier, he turned to see the culprit.

"Why the stairs?" The tan feline asked, standing in the doorway.

"The elevator won't take my weight." He responded before turning back, leaving the dubious feline staring at his back.

He started to stomp down the stairs, Callie went after him, reluctantly. Four flights in he noticed that the women had slowed considerably. "What's the problem?" He grunted, every second wasted was one second their pursers gained on them.

She leaned back onto the wall with a tired exhalation. "I can't keep going like this, not to mention we left my shoes back there." She pointed to her clawed feet, lifting up one and rubbing it in her paws.

Six sighed but wasn't angry, he knew the limitations of non-spartans. He walked over to Callie who watched him approach with apprehension. "What are you doing?" He didn't answer and surprised her when he lifted her up bridal-style, making her mewl in indignation, and began to jog down the stairs at a much more ground consuming pace.

She stared up into the helmeted head of her rescuer, she found herself trying to puzzle out the gender of the individual. She observed the bulky muscle and masculine presence it exuded, not to mention the broad shoulders. It...was definitely a he, she began to blush madly for some reason, her fur blending into a pinkish tan swirl. This went unnoticed by the spartan as he was focused in securing the exfil of his VIP.

The Turbokay did a fly by of Callie's apartment. Razor and T-bone took in the sight of the broken window, and the mutilated remains of a pack of creeplings. "Looks like we're late to the party." T-bone muttered to his friend.

"Maybe, but let's hope that we aren't to late." Razor suddenly formulated an idea. "Hey, T-bone, think you can get me close enough to the window?"

He could hear the grin in his friends voice. "Think I can, I know I can!" The Kat replied confidently and brought the Turbokat up to the precept of the makeshift entrance, wingtips almost clipping the side of the building. The cockpit slid open and Razor climbed on to the wing. "Hey, good luck!" T-bone shouted over the comms as the cockpit sealed.

"Luck, I don't need luck." Razor fired back and leaped into the room. He took only a second to gather himself before he ran out of the room in search of Callie.


	4. Chapter 4

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 4: Unpleasant Introduction

Six hurried down the long flights of stairs, all the while holding the feline woman in his huge arms. As he ventured down he couldn't help observe her beauty. The blonde hair cascading down her shoulders complimented her tawny fur. And he noticed her bright blue eyes, they shown like beacons in the darkness of the dimly lit stairway. It tickled a thought out of his head. Six had extremely vague memories of his past, his pre-spartan days, the most vivid one was of a cat.

One thing he did know about his childhood was that even back then he was a loner. His only friend outside his house had been a tan furred stray cat. He had nurtured it, sharing the meager food that his single mother provided. He and the cat had been best friends for a few months, until the Covenant glassed his colony. He could only assume that the cat had perished along with everyone else on that ill fated world.

Six was brought back to reality when the furry woman prodded his shoulder plate with a claw, the crimson nail clicked against the titanium alloy and dragged his attention to the owner. He looked down to the woman, Six found himself unable to turn away from her sparkling sapphire eyes. He was lucky that the obsidian visor was impenetrable, he didn't think she would react well to his gaze. "Yes?"

Callie was flustered as she spoke what was on her mind. She twiddled her paws as she laid in his arms, like a nervous schoolgirl. "You're a guy right?" She had figured that it was a he, but she still felt the need to ask.

Six laughed quietly, his deep voice mirthful as he continued his descent to the exit. "I can promise you, I am indeed a man." As he laughed, Six couldn't help but feel lighter, as if her presence made him feel better. He found her distracting him from his troubles. It was a most welcome interruption from the frustration of his predicament.

She flushed even deeper and tried to hide her muzzle in her paws. Six had to tear his eyes of her and refocus on exiting the building. They were still being pursued after all! As he jogged, Six's augmented hearing detected the sound of following steps, the patter of determined paws sizzled in his ears. "They are closing in." He warned the Briggs women and went from a jog to a sprint.

As he blazed down the stairs Callie juddered up and down in his arms gracelessly, not completely thrilled with his pace. "S-s-slow d-d-down." She stuttered as he then leaped down an entire flight, making her yowl in surprise. He slammed down with an earth-shattering bang, the cement splintered under his and Callie's weight "seriously?" She growled as he resumed his sprint. He didn't answer as he neared the last leg of their journey.

Razor ran out of Ms. Briggs's room, he began to worry. In her bedroom he discovered nine shell casings from a weapon he had never before seen, That could only mean that the unknown from the strange aircraft had been there. That could either bode ill of well, but Razor wasn't going to take any chances. He sped out of the room and into the corridor, only taking a second to analyze the shattered door.

Razor was heading to the elevator when he noticed that the stairway access door was slightly ajar. He stopped and changed his course, he barged into the room. His powerful feline ears detected the sound of heavy armored boots descending below him. He chased after the sound zealously, however the footsteps picked up. It must have heard him following.

At the limits of his endurance, he ran even faster down the seemingly unending staircase. Razor would not give up, no matter how impossible catching up seemed. Finally, he ended up at the end of the stairs, what he saw was astounding...and terrifying.

A huge obsidian robot was carrying Ms. Briggs, it was the most fearsome and intimidating thing that Razor had ever laid eyes on. Its armor was at least four inches thick and covered almost its entire frame. The rest of the giant was wrapped up in what looked like thick fiber optic cables that almost reminded the Kat of muscles. The most disturbing thing was the the grace with which it walked, no robot should be able to walk so smoothly. It had a considerate stride, calm and deliberate.

It was also covered in weapons, on its back were two long black and lethal looking guns. On its thigh was a pistol that could have comfortably fit in both of Razor's paws, and probably was the only way he could carry it.

He took all of this in as he saw the figure reach for the handle of the exit. Razor wasn't about to let it get away with its prisoner, he activated his Glovatrix and fired off the trio of buzz-saw blades. They flew towards their target with deadly precision and speed, the Kat was confident his attack would succeed.

But to Razor's surprise and horror, the blades bounced pathetically of the robots armor. The robot was consumed in a golden shimmering aura that was both beautiful and frighting. As the thing gently set down Ms, Briggs, Razor began to feel a sense of foreboding. Then, in an act of unbelievable speed, the robot flung a fist out that he barely managed to dodge. When the gauntlet collided with the wall, it exploded in a dazzling blast of shrapnel. Razor's stomach churned fear, if a hit like that connected to him, he would not survive. He had only one chance, he had to go on the offensive.

Razor launched himself at the tall ebony robot and tried to desperately beat it back using all of his skill and cunning. But yet again the being almost casually sidestepped his attacks and delivered a painful elbow to his furred abdomen. Razor smashed into the wall but quickly righted himself and used all his strength to hit the demon upside the head. The blow didn't even faze his opponent, who's head only shifted marginally, once more shrouded in that strange golden glow. In another futile attempt Razor smashed a fist into the thing's chest. His only reward was the jolt of pain in his paw as it bounced of the unyielding armor of this monster.

Just before he could continue his attack, he was slammed into the wall by the bulky shoulderplate of his enemy. Razor felt the air explode out of his lungs, as he was pinned. All he could do now was look into the muzzle of the weapon aimed at his head. This demon was invincible it seemed. Razor closed his eyes, unwilling to see his end, his last thoughts were that he had failed T-bone and Ms. Briggs.

Six was reaching for the door-handle when he felt several objects impact on his MJOLNIR, causing the shields to flare. He stumbled forwards from the force and almost dropped the woman onto the concert floor. He caught her just in time and set her gently on the floor. The spartan whipped around with inhuman speed and lashed out an armored gauntlet, his pursuer barely dodged the fatal blow. The wall behind him was pulverized, exploding into dust. The attacker rolled backwards swiftly, reveling him to Six.

It was a brown Kat, wearing...a pilot's suit? The spartan was stunned for a millisecond. This one was not of the flying grunt variety he had previously faced. Six became cautious, a knew threat meant new tactics. He would have to deal with him, and quickly. But before he could draw his weapon, the Kat engaged him in a flurry of hand to hand combat.

Six easily dodged a sideswipe and retaliated with a vicious elbow to the solar plexus. His enemy was thrown to the wall, but impressively recovered immediately and launched a bawled up paw to strike upside his head. The strike meagerly diminished his shields, not even strong enough to turn his head. Yet his opponent also rammed a paw into his chestplate, only managing to cause an injury on himself as the armor and shielding once more absorbed the hit.

Six was now frustrated, this fight was pointless. The Kat was fearless and brave, but ultimately outmatched by the experienced and hyper-lethal spartan. Six shoulder bashed the feline into the wall. The blow stunned him, this gave the spartan the opportunity to go in for the kill.

Six unholstered his magnum and aimed it at his adversary. He didn't have time to mess around. The Kat froze up as he stared down the barrel of the handgun. Just as Six began to pull the trigger, the voice of his charge intervened. "STOP!" Six slowly released the trigger and looked back to her, unsure of what to do. His uncertainty was soon replaced with anger.

"Why?" He snarled, his fighting instincts barely restrained as his gloved finger spasmed on the trigger. Six needed to kill. And now once more she was holding back his bloodlust. He turned to her, blue eyes blazing, but concealed by the stark black visor.

"He's a good guy!" She exclaimed hurriedly. Six growled and kept the gun pointed at its target, he would need allot more convincing then that. "He is one of the SWAT Kats!" The spartan didn't know what a SWAT Kat was.

"SWAT Kat?" He grunted. By this time, the "SWAT Kat" had opened his eyes and saw that the robot was talking directly with Ms. Briggs. The gun was still facing in his direction so he didn't try to press his luck. Razor just watched the conversation with intrigued eyes.

"Yes, they are protectors of the city, I called them before you showed up." Callie explained as she slowly moved to stand in-between her savior and Razor. The spartan hesitantly and reluctantly returned his magnum to its locked position (Razor breathed a sigh of relief and thanked every god he could think of). "Thank you." Callie said gratefully to the man.

Six just grunted and turned to leave. "Where are you going?" Callie asked in surprise, and worry. She had not anticipated his desire to leave.

"You are back in safe hands, I am no longer needed." The spartan replied emotionlessly, without facing her as he headed for the door. She watched the strange giant of a man walk away and began feel apprehension build in her gut. For some reason she didn't want him to leave, he was like a security blanket for the woman. She had started to associate his presence with safety and comfort. When he was around she felt as if nothing in this world could harm her.

"But..." Callie called out desperately making him halt. He turned back slowly to observe the feline, her paw was outstretched, claws digging into the air, as if pleading for him to stay

"But?" Six asked quietly, for the first time in a long time his voice was not barking nor rough. It was soft and almost innocent.

"Can't you stay?" She mewled. It briefly reminded the spartan of the cat he had saved all those years ago.

Six felt the urge to say yes, but he had a camp to head back to, and on top of that he didn't fancy having to deal with the other Kat. "I can't, I have go." He said, Callie thought she heard a reluctant tone in his bland answer. He turned once more to the exit and opened it. With one last look back he walked out of the door.

"What the hell was that about!" Razor shouted in confusion. His expression matched his tone of voice. He was still eyeing the door that the monstrous robot had used.

"Its...a long story." Callie sighed. "How about I tell you later for now, I have to find another place to sleep." She muttered, not happy with that fact.

Dark Kat watched from the rooftop as a single one of his minions returned. "What happened?" He demanded angrily. The little monster cowered and let loose a screeching babble. Dark Kats purple muzzle turned dark, he picked up the creepling and brought it eye to eye. "What is this about a demon?" He asked dangerously, his eyes gleamed a hazardous orange.

The creature stuttered weakly, answering in broken howls. Whatever it said was not what the wicked Kat wanted to hear. With a quick compression he snapped the creature's fragile neck and let it fall off the building to the street below, where it landed with a wet smack. Dark Kat twirled and walked away from the edge, he would need to get more information about this "demon". It was now on his ever growing list of vengeance.

Six soon found himself back in the clearing of his base camp. It was now buried in snow. He gazed at the cold remains of his campfire and the shoddy wooden cabin, with the frozen powder covering it all. As he looked at he he had built, he sighed. This was his life now, no war and no purpose. The spartan sat down by the frozen embers, his weight displacing the very ground. He didn't even have the heart to rekindle the flames. The only moments where he felt that he was doing something worthwhile once more was when he was helping the feline woman.

Six sat there for an unknown length of time. His black armor slowly becoming engulfed by the gently falling snow as he thought about that inconsequential detail, that minuscule little thing. Unknown to him, that was the most important detail of all, it would influence the rest of his life.

He awoke sometime later, not realizing that he had fallen asleep. At first he was confused at to why his visor was white, he couldn't see out of it. Then it dawned on him, he was buried under the snow. He rose up from the snowy confines, the white powder slid of his massive frame. Now unencumbered he could study his surroundings.

The cabin was buried under a thick layer of powder. Even his campfire was consumed by the ghastly plague of winter. Six's MJOLNIR was the only thing keeping him from freezing. It was rated for EVA ops so a little frigid air wouldn't do him in. With a noncommittal grunt he went to the shelter and cleared the wintery blockage with venomous gusto, he was starting to despise the snow.

Once he managed to get inside the cabin he unwrapped the leaves that contained his supplies. With care, Six removed his Mark V helm and placed it under his left arm. His other arm tore a chunk of the deer from the whole and brought it to his mouth. Six gnawed on the cold jerky and walked back out of the cabin, after placing the rest back under wraps. The spartan looked upon the clearing he called home, still eating the meat, and nodded to himself. He was here, so he better adapt. Six began to feel a sense of optimism once more, he couldn't place why, but it was there hovering over his head.

As the spartan stood, staring into the red-orange hue of the morning sky, he placed a gauntlet onto the dog-tag chain around his throat. Six held it up to the light, Jorge, Kat, Emile, and Carter, he only wished they were alive, standing beside him at this moment.

With the feeling of optimism Six finally had a plan. He would, if he decided these people were deserving of it, become there protector. That's what spartans were, defenders, protectors of the innocent! And even if he was stranded away from humanity he would continue to do what he was made for. He would not allow himself to squander his gift, and his sacrifice. The spartan would create meaning for his own life.

First things first, he would have to find that Callie woman again, she was the only one he knew here. She could lead him to these SWAT Kats. He would then ally himself with them, they had a jet. That mean that they had some sort of hanger, maybe he could even store his Sabre there?

Now buzzing with new purpose, Six collected himself and prepared to venture once more into the city.

Callie found a cheap hotel she could stay in until they fixed up her apartment. It had been a hell of a job explaining the damages to the buildings owner, but she had made up some story about some intruders that seemed to convince the Kat.

Now she sat down on the hotel bed and stretched out yawning, her sharp needle teeth gleaming in the light. As she got ready to sleep she kept thinking about her heroic savior. That's what he had become in her eyes. At first she was terrified of him, but it turned into...she couldn't quite place it yet. But she found herself unable to sleep. She imagined him standing guard over her, protecting her from the terrors of the night. With that thought she found slumber much easier, the now content feline drifted off into untroubled sleep. Her dreams filled with a knight in shining armor, black as night, as he stood valiantly afore her. A shield of sparkling golden light in one hand and a sword of fire in the other. She smiled in her sleep and cuddled with the cheap pillow, wrapping her whole body around it even her tail encompassed it, imagining the downy bedding as her savior.

Razor and T-bone parked the jet and opened the cockpit. "What did you see buddy?"

Razor shook his head in bewilderment as he climbed out "I don't know, some sort of robot or demon. Whatever it was, it seemed to listen to Ms. Briggs."

"Whoa..." T-bone exclaimed as he jumped out of the Turbokat and walked over to the lockers. That was something that Chance couldn't wrap his head around.

As they shifted out of their suits and back into the trappings of mechanics Jake took thought back to his encounter with the thing. From what he saw it only wanted to protect Ms. Briggs. Maybe, just maybe, they could make a friend out of this strange thing. Jake knew that they couldn't do this alone forever. Someday their luck will run out.

But with something like that on their side, they just might be able to pull off a major victory against the evil tide attempting to flood this city.


	5. Chapter 5

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 5: Annoying Wildlife

Six walked through the luscious green forest of this strange world. As the spartan plodded along he found himself subconsciously nitpicking over his weapons. It helped to pass the time, considering he wasn't trying to reach the city with any speed. His mind was troubled with many thoughts.

How exactly was he going to find that feline woman again? Six had not tracked her to her next abode, and in fact, didn't even know the layout of the city. Those were indeed thoughts worthy of concern. The spartan forayed deeper into the miasma of the forest, as he walked, he began to feel a deep seated unease. Something was very wrong here. Slowly, he drew his assault rifle and took another, more intense, view of his surroundings. His rifle swayed, on the prowl for a target. The once friendly and welcoming atmosphere of the woodland took on an ominous and hostile presence.

Six saw something flash in the corner of his vision, he whipped around to point his massive gun at a...squirrel. The tiny ball of brown and black fur froze in the gunsight and squeaked fearfully. The spartan sighed and lowered his gun, and returned it to its hold on his back. Feeling bad at frightening the innocent ball of fur, he reached into one of his many pouches and took out a dehydrated apple slice.

Six held his huge ebony gauntleted palm up and open with the dehydrated foodstuff, and slowly moved it to the stump the squirrel was stationed on. The tiny rodent scurried onto his palm and started to nibble on the fruit. The spartan watched as the minuscule furry creature sat happily on his hand and ate the treat. With care, Six cautiously brought his free hand to it and stroked its back gently with nimble fingers.

It had been a very long time since he saw any adorable little animals. The Covenant didn't bother to keep collateral damage to a minimum. More often then nought they destroyed entire ecosystems, driving whole species extinct with their wanton destruction. But now, here, he could see wildlife, in its undisturbed be-

Six suddenly was thrown off his feet and impacted a tree, his weight snapped the thick oak in half. Dazed he looked around for his enemy, where was it? The spartan was ripped of his feet again and dangled in the air, when he saw his attacker, he grunted. This particular specimen was not adorable. A huge olive green and red striped reptilian lay coiled on the ground in front of him. The giant snake even dwarfed the spartan. The thing was over thirty feet in length and its width was wider then the spartan body. Its head was at least as big as a ghost and twice as deadly. The damn thing must have been hiding, and his distraction with the squirrel gave it the opportunity to go in for the kill. But what the snake didn't know was that spartans were no easy prey.

The monster opened its maw, revealing a unbelievable network of swordlike fangs and hissed loud enough to scramble his audio sensors. Faster then even his spartan reflexes could detect or react, the snake chomped down on his chestplate, his shield winked out immediately under the extreme pressure. The sword-fangs scrabbled for purchase on his titanium armor. The MJLONIR was more then a match for the predators jaws. Nature and science clashed, and science prevailed.

Snarling, still in the snake's maw, Six delivered a furious uppercut to the underside of the beast's jaw, delivering all the power he could muster. It dropped him with an unearthly roar and tilted backwards. Like enamel rain, the remains of its once terrifying pearly whites cascaded out of its maw. The force of the spartan's fist had shattered the snake's fangs. It may have lost its piercing weapons, but its body was still dangerous. With a pain-filled hiss the beast slammed its steel cable like body into the spartan. This sent him soaring into the sky a good hundred and fifty feet. Six was somewhat impressed by the strength the creature possessed, it was no easy feat, throwing a spartan like a toy.

Still no matter how impressive it was, that wouldn't stop Six from eliminating the threat. Ironically the snake had provided the means of its own demise. He shifted his momentum to face downwards, and prepped a fist. The spartan flew, and smashed into the beast. Using all the force he built up, the spartan tore right through the unfortunate animal. His blow decapitated the giant beast. Six felt satisfaction at so thourghly destroying his foe, but what he didn't enjoy, was the impact of his body greeting the ground.

The thunderous boom and proceeding slam into the ground disorientated the spartan. He blacked out, that is, until he felt and heard a soft patter on his helmet. Six forced his eyes open and was met with a tiny pair of brown ones, they looked into his visor fearlessly. It seems that the little squirrel had climbed onto his helm and started to tap on it with its little paws, awakening him. Slowly Six rose up to a sitting position, the little fuzzy rodent shifted to a comfortable place on top of the spartans head. Six found himself inside a smoking spartan sized crater. Gingerly, he removed the little squirrel and set him down upon the heated dirt.

It looked up to him, Six swore that it looked sad. That didn't matter, where he had to go and where he went was no place for tiny mammals. He walked towards the carcass of the giant snake, he wanted to get a good look at the thing that had the audacity to try to make a snack out of a spartan. Six had to admit, it truly was an impressive specimen, he doubted any natural person could have slayed it. But the poor snake did not face any natural foe, it faced a spartan, and a spartan was the biggest predator around.

For an odd reason he couldn't place, Six decided to take some fangs of the beast. (The few that weren't ruined by his fist), and stored them in a large rectangular cartridge on his armored belt. With that done the spartan left the body to the elements and once more took the path back to the city. As he walked along, he felt something scramble up his legs and all the way to his neck. With a sigh he removed the Invader with a gauntlet and was unsurprised to see the same rodent from earlier.

He lifted it up to his visor and growled, hoping to make it leave. The diminutive little creature just nuzzled the obsidian visor and chirped. "Stupid thing." Six muttered and shook it softly and let go. The stubborn little demon refused to let go of his hand, clinging tighter to the chinks in the armored glove. Six let out an explosive breath in defeat and stopped trying to rid himself of the relentless pest.

Sensing that the man was no longer trying to remove it, the squirrel scampered along his arm and curled up on his broad shoulder. The spartan muttered to himself grumpily as his unwelcome companion burrowed in the loose armor segments. Still, he found himself feeding it more scraps of fruit from his pouch. The stoic spartan blamed it on alien influence.

So with a new, and somewhat persistent companion, Six headed for the city. The usual silence was broken by the chirping and chittering of his tag along as it sojourned along the spartans massive body, scampering to and fro looking for places to play as it explored.

Callie woke up and looked to her pillow, it seemed she had drooled on it in her sleep. With a groan she pushed it away. On the bright side, she had the most pleasant dream. A knight in ebony armor had defended her from the nightmares that had plagued her since the rise of evil in the city.

All she wanted to do was lay in bed and rest but, there would be no rest for the mayor's aide. As she sat up she got a good look at her surroundings. The hotel room was nice, big enough for two people if need be and decorated modestly. Callie rolled of the bed and went to the mirror.

In the pane of glass was a tired looking tawny feline. Her blue eyes had bags under them and her clothes looked worn. She was forced to wear regular clothes to bed as her apartment was still under restoration. All she had was a pair of jeans and maroon t-shirt. At least she had managed to get a pair of shoes at a store on the way to the hotel. She didn't even have her glasses, having lost them somewhere she couldn't remember. In fact, where was the last place she had them? Oh well, she would just have to deal with it for now.

Making herself somewhat presentable, she left her temporary living space and took a cab to Megakat City Tower. Callie walked into the foyer and stopped, she looked to the entryway to the staircase. That was the last place she had seen her savior. The feline found herself going over and touching the door, brushing her paw against the metallic finish.

"Ms. Briggs!" A pompous voice exclaimed behind her tearing her way from the memories of the previous night.

"Yes Mayor Manx?" She sighed and turned to the pseudo leader of Megakat city. The short brown Kat was in charge of the city, but never did anything. Honestly, Callie didn't even know how he continued to get elected, it was a mystery that may never be solved.

"There are papers needing signing!" He harrumphed, and motioned for her to follow him. Callie muttered under her breath and headed after the opulently dressed Kat. He didn't even ask after her health, she though he would after the scuffle last night. She looked to the inside of the staircase as she left and watched as a baffled construction crew effected repairs. Surely that deserved some sort of mention? But it must not have, as the mayor ignored the desecrated stairway and went straight to the elevator.

Callie spent the next four hours shuffling through papers and taking care of the little details that are needed to run a city. Meanwhile, the mayor said something about important business and ran off. Callie scoffed, important business? He was down at the Megakat Golf course! No doubt he was playing as she did the real work. In frustration she tossed the papers onto the desk and leaned back with a sigh, putting her hindpaws on the desk and kicking off the heels she was wearing. Flexing her tired clawed toes letting them breathe, having them released from their prisons.

All this work was starting to drag her down. She needed a break, a stroll through the park would do her good. But first, a little Kat nap. Soon the only sound in the office was a faint but pleasant snoring, and the only movement was her triangular furred ears as they twitched in her sleep.

Six reached the edge of the forest, once more finding himself at the start of this feline-centric metropolis. He stood, majestically at the precept, staring forwards towards his goal. That is until something ruined it...tap tap tap tap, he sighed.

The little rodent prodded the side of his head with a nut, several seconds later he heard a crack...That just happened, a squirrel just cracked a nut on his helmet. The moment desecrated, Six muttered to himself sullenly and looked to his annoying and unremovable companion.

The infuriating little ball of fur gazed back innocently, as if not understanding what the problem was. But Six knew! Oh yes! He knew that the little monster was aware of its blasphemy. He stared at it fully intending to let his displeasure show, even through the polarized visor, but the damn thing simply chittered and vanished somewhere on his back. Giving up, Six ignored it and looked back to the town. He would need to find another way in. Perhaps he could go on the rooftops again? Maybe find a sewer entrance?

As he debated the squirrel moved to its favorite position on the spartan, his head. It curled up to nap on it, as he stood their unmoving, plotting his next plan.


	6. Chapter 6

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 5: Unwanted But Warranted Publicity

Six, after a few minutes of thought, chose to take the rooftop. It had been successful last time, and he felt a little...uneasy, at the idea of going into the unknown depths below, and spartan worth his salt would trust his gut feeling. And his feeling was one of caution and danger.

With his course laid out, the spartan got ready to leave. That is, until something stalled him, and made him groan soundlessly at the same time. With a chitter, the little rodent scrabbled to hang of his chestplate, swinging back and forth merrily on the hilt of his KA-BAR. Ugh...the squirrel, he had forgotten about the damn pest. It put a serious hamper on his stealth capabilities. Even in active camo he wouldn't be able to sneak past a blind, dead, and mute Kat. The little bastard would somehow still find a way of giving them up.

Yet, for all the trouble it posed, he couldn't motivate himself to get rid of the little guy. The sneaky thing had already found a way of burrowing into his iron hard heart. Six guessed that he was stuck with it now. So, taking the squirrel in mind, he would just have to be even more careful if he wanted to infiltrate the city undetected. With luck, it wouldn't do anything stupid to get them discovered. Yet the spartan wasn't pleased with the chance of that.

But then, he had an idea. Six picked up the hyperactive squirrel, peeling it off his knife, and stuffed it none to gently in a pouch, to placate the fiend he also tossed in the rest of his fruit. There, it couldn't do anything had from inside, and the fruit should tide it over until he snuck past the Kats in the park. So, praying to the gods that he wouldn't be discovered, he activated his camo and stealthily entered the city of felines.

Jake and Chance were walking in the city. It had been a long day at the garage, and both of them needed to get a bite to eat. With that in mind they headed for Katlina's Diner. It was a personal favorite of theirs, having gone there almost constantly back during their enforcer days. So for the memories they decided to go back, not to mention she had the best burgers in town!

Chance was often reminded of his love for this city when he went through it. The streets were clean and the people were nice. It was rare to find good Kats in a big city. Life in them can and often does make them angry and confrontational. But, something about this place was different. And the SWAT Kats would do their best to keep it that way.

As they strolled along the sidewalk, Chance noticed that Jake was acting withdrawn. Something was in his friend's mind and he aimed to find out. "What's bugging ya buddy?"

"Nothing man, didn't worry about." Jake tried to dismiss his friend's concern, but the Kat wouldn't have any of it.

"Bud...I've known you for a long time, I can feel when something had got you thinking, now tell me the truth." Chance said determinedly as they neared their destination.

Jake sighed. "Well, if you must know, I was thinking about my encounter with Ms. Briggs apparent guardian. You should have seen it Chance! The thing was over seven feet tall, and covered in obsidian armor. It was the first enemy I faced that beat me hands down. Of it had t been for Ms. Briggs, it would have killed me. It could probably singlehandedly take on the entire enforcer core and come out on top! What is it? What is it here?" The Kat kept walking, but slowed down as he pondered aloud to his curious friend.

"I can't answer those questions Jake, but I can offer you a piece of advice."

Jake looked to him, hopefully. "Really?"

"You can enjoy some burgers and stop worrying about!" Chance said simply and herded his friend over to the Diner, ignoring the dazed expression on his face, that was not what he was expecting to hear.

Callie woke up from her unfortunately short nap. Her waking eyes were graced with the giant stack of papers she needed to sign. This did not make for a happy kitty. Callie tried to reorient her self to the souls siphoning task, but couldn't do it.

Twenty minutes later she gave up, grabbed her things, and stormed out of the office. Mayor Manx could do the damn paper work later, she wouldn't deal with it right now. Now, she would go to the park and relax, she felt that she deserved it.

Waving goodbye to the friendly secretary outside the office, Callie left the tower and headed to the park. Along the way, she found herself once more thinking of her savior. The strange man had not said much, but impacted her all the same. He had a solemn presence and yet, he watched over her. Even now, she felt as though he was nearby, keeping her safe. A silly notion, one that she entertained. But, little did she know, she was not wrong.

For above her, the spartan stood on a rooftop. He had started to follow her when he spied her out among the crowds.

Finally, he found the girl, it had been a stroke of luck. He had turned to berate the little fuzzy devil that was attempting to open another acorn on his shoulderplate when he spied the feline woman walking down the street to his left. Six shoved the belligerent squirrel back in its container and pursed her.

The woman went to the park, making him groan. He had gone deep into the city and she was going all the way back out. It made his efforts...unnecessary. Throwing aside his pointless grumpiness, Six used his thinking power to figure out the best way to meet up with her without starting a panic.

Maybe the best thing would be to just stride out into the open and act like he was a part of some popularity stunt. That idea wasn't the best, so he would do that only if he had no other option. At least no one had scene him yet, so it could work. But there must be some other way. Waiting around didn't seem like a good one either, the spartan was getting sick of lazing around. Doing nothing was anathema to a spartan, he needed to do something. If he so desired, he could abduct her.

...Huh

That might not go so well now that he thought about it. So the obsidian armored giant sat on the roof of the building behind her, with little squirrel playing around on his head, and debated to himself heatedly. Six was upset, a spartan should be able to come up with a good plan! All these "plans" so far, if you could even call them that, sucked. Screw it, he would just go down there and talk to her face to face, and to hell with the consequences!

Six stuffed the squirrel into his pouch again and climbed down from the roof. He stood, in the shadows of the alley way, and prepared himself for the worst plan ever conceived by a spartan. He took a deep breath and walked out into the open...or he would have if he hadn't frozen up line a statue. It seemed his body still was an unwilling participant in his goal. If was harder them anything he had ever done before. It was not something spartans did, walking among the public, alien or not. So collecting his courage and with no small part of reluctance, and with grim determination, he forced himself to stomp out of the alley.

At first, as he walked out into the park, no one seemed to notice him. It was strange, almost as if he was invisible. At least, that is until they turned to see him. He considered himself lucky, most of them just froze staring at the armored behemoth striding among them. His enhanced audio sensors picked up the faint whispers of the stunned collective.

"Is it a new enforcer bot?" A male tabby by a fountain asked.

"I don't know, it might be a battle suit." The old greying Kat besides him replied.

"But where is the tail?"

"Probably tucked into the suit."

So far so good, they actually thought he was one of these "enforcer" guys. The plan was actually working! So with new found confidence, he beelined for the Callie woman.

Callie was walking along the cobbled path that wined around the lake. She was having a relaxing day. Although, she found herself craving the company of her stalwart bodyguard. She missed having the guy around. That was strange considering he had only been with her twice. But that didn't matter to the unknowingly lovestruck feline. She just knew that he should be there.

She was brought out of here reverie when she heard people begin to whisper loudly in awe, followed by the thudding of armored boots. Puzzled she looked around to find the reason for all the commotion. When she saw it, her heart did little summersaults of joy and no small part, curiosity. Her monolithic savior was here! And he was walking straight to her. The crowds parted in front of him as he strode along, the Kats looking up to the huge armored figure with awe plastered muzzles.

As he got into range of her, she suddenly found herself running up and tackling him and squeezing his cold armor tightly, he didn't even move backwards when she collided with him. Callie couldn't grasp why, but she wanted to hug him, so she did. It did not occur to her until seconds later that her arms only reached his lower torso, but in the end she didn't care, he was here!

"Uh...hello?" He rumbled awkwardly, shuffling almost imperceptibly. This embrace had come as a surprise to the spartan, he had not anticipated that she would have missed him that much. But, as he stood there in the fuzzy armlock of the feline, he felt content.

She must have realized that not only did they have gawkers, but that it was a little unbecoming of a lady. She collected herself quickly. "I had thought you were gone."

"I had to take care of somethings, but I came back." He replied, surprised at the warmth in his tone. He was acting awfully familiar with her.

"Well, its good to see you here." She said firmly, before turning contemplative. "Why did you come back?"

He wasn't quite sure if he was yet comfortable with explaining his reasons, so he was vague in his response. "I have come to a conclusion about something."

His answer was lacking, but she let it be for now. "Alright, well in any case, I'm glad to see you again."

"Yes uhh...its nice to see you too." He said difficultly, having found it hard to say, but feeling the need to.

She looked behind his considerable bulk and. Priced all the stared and prying eyes. "How about we go somewhere more private?"

He looked around, having ignored the people, as they presented no threat. But now that he saw them in full detail, he began to feel uneasy, from all the looks he was garnering. "That...would be best."

"Come with me, I'll get us to a better place." She grabbed his large right gauntlet and started to tug him along to a unknown location. Somewhat surprised at her sudden forceful demand, he obediently walked after her. As he did, he couldn't help but notice all the eyes focused on him. Hopefully this would not blow up in his face.

Jake and Chance were walking out of Katlina's Diner, with content sighs and bulging stomachs. "Kats alive! She sure does make a mean burger." Chance groaned as he headed back to the tow truck. "I think I might be sick."

"She may make good burgers, but if you eat five, you will get sick." Jake said with a laugh. Sometimes his friend couldn't stop himself.

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever." Chance muttered back, he had eaten as much as he wanted and he was happy with that.

They climbed into the now suspiciously crowded cab of the truck and Chance fired up the engine. As his friend started to get them going, Jake exhaled in satisfaction and closed his eyes, focusing on the digestion of his meal. The day had been a good one, and he wanted to get a little sleep before they made it back to the garage. It was not meant to be.

"Uh...Jake?" He heard chance say questioningly.

"Yeah Chance?" He replied making himself more comfortable in his seat.

"This thing you tussled with, what did it look like again?" His friend sounded strange but he paid it no mind.

"It was hard to forget man, seven and a halfish feet tall, armor black as death, and a grim disposition." Jake muttered sleepily.

"It also have a bandolier and nasty looking weapons?"

He opened one eye and looked to Chance curiously. "yeah, but I didn't tell you that part. How did you know?"

"Well, its right outside." Chance replied simply, pointing outside the window.

Jake shot up in his seat and traced the path of his friend's directing paw to see the thing. It was following after Ms. Briggs closely, like a guard dog. It went brazenly through the streets, out in broad daylight in view of everyone in the world. "Oh..."

Unaware of their two plainclothes vigilante observes, Callie and Six continued on to wherever she was taking them. A few minutes later, he found out where it was when the surroundings began to look familiar. They were going to Megakat City Tower. Six found it odd, not having to be sneaky, and just walking in. But it was admittedly better so he didn't let it bother him too much.

Callie headed for the elevator, but stopped when she felt that at she was not being followed. Her guardian had stopped a few feet away. "What's wrong?" She asked in confusion, until she remembered. "Oh yeah, no elevator." She muttered to herself.

"Its fine my milady, I can take the stairs." He said politely, surprising her with the new title.

"Well then, I'll go with you!" She said determinedly, eyes flashing brightly.

He was not so sure that she could make it up all those flights, especially putting into account the fact that she couldn't do it only yesterday. But she looked like she wouldn't take no for an answer and so he let her go along.

As he had predicted, she gave out in not to short a time, although he gave her credit. She lasted three times longer then the day before. Not wanting to brook an argument he picked her up again and carried her the rest of the way. He looked down to her and saw a happy smile on her face. The conniving feline had probably planned it!

He was about to exit on the seventieth floor when she stopped him. Apparently, where they were going was

Was on eighty second floor. With a sigh he climbed the remaining twelve levels and arrived at those destination. He let her down to the ground, Callie left first, and he followed afterwards. Six saw that they had gone to a richly designed office. Sitting at a desk in from to the doors was a gaping black female Kat, who eyed the spartan with awe, something he was become familiar with.

"He-he-hey Ca-Callie, who's yo-yo-your fri-friend." She stuttered, looking up to the giant.

"This is my...bodyguard..uh..." She realized that she had never asked for his name, and felt a little bad at that.

"Six ma'am, the name is Six." He said to the Kat at the desk, his pleasantly deep voice calming the jittery woman, although both women took note of the odd name.

"Oh...it is nice to meet you...Six." She said with a winning smile.

"Likewise ma'am." He responded with a gracious tip of the helmet.

With that done, the duo entered the office, Callie taking the chair and Six standing at the side of the desk. She turned to him apologetically. "I'm so sorry that I didn't even know your name, I'm just terrible."

"It doesn't bother me Ms. Briggs." He said dismissively.

"Please, call me Callie, I think you have done enough to earn that right." She demanded.

"Okay...Callie." He said slowly, letting the name flow through his lips. It had a nice ring to it. Before he could continue he felt a scuffle in his pouch, he groaned loudly.

"What's the matter?" she asked worriedly.

Before Six could warn her, the container finally burst open and the head of the squirrel slowly rose up into view. The spartan mentally face palmed, he had forgotten about his traveling companion. He only hoped that nothing would go wrong.

"What...is...that?" Callie asked slowly.

"...a...squirrel." He replied hesitantly.

"You have...a squirrel." She deadpanned.

"I can explain." He said a little to quickly. It scrambled up his body and sat on top of his head. She stared at the two intensively for a few minutes, until she burst into musical laughter, and almost fell out of her office chair.

Six grumbled at the loss of his dignity and muttered angry unintelligible words at the squirrel. But inside he was happy, this was a much better day then it had started out to be.


	7. Chapter 7

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 7: Surfacing Emotions

After the embarrassing entrance of his little rodent friend, Six began to slouch sullenly. Any coolness factor he had managed to build up between himself and Callie had been compromised by the silly diminutive squirrel. Still, he couldn't find it in his heart to remain mad at it. It possessed a remarkable ability to make him forgive, and tolerate its presence.

"Awe, is the big bad man upset at the little squirrelly whirly?" He heard Callie call out to him cutely, cradling the little monster in her fuzzy arms and scratching its ears, giving Six a wide eyed feline look. It seemed that the squirrel also contained the power to turn her into a pile of baby talking mush.

"I'm fine." He sullenly muttered back in reply from his place at the side of the desk. He was feeling left out of the equation. It was a stupid feeling, and he knew it, but he had it anyways.

Sensing that he was a little miffed, Callie let the squirrel go play around the desk and went to stand next to the spartan. She had a few questions that had been bothering her for awhile. "I never did ask you, but where are you from...Six?" It felt good to put a name to the man, even though it was a little strange. Why was his name a number?

Unbeknownst to her, but his posture ever so subtlety shifted to a forlorn one. A spartan would have been able to tell, but not her. "I hail from a place very far away, a dark one...one of war." His rough voice was contemplative, as he thought back to the past that was not so long ago. In fact, it had only been a few days, if even that.

"War?" The answer was a strange one to her, there had not been a war for many years, long before her time. It was an odd concept now a-days, almost unthinkable.

"Yes war, a long bloody and terrible one, the loss of civilian life was and still is terrible." He replied, the spartan started to feel horrible as he remembered his commitment to humanity, and he wasn't back there fighting, to save them. It's what he was raised to do, his purpose. But he understood that returning would most likely never be an option, he was stranded here on this feline filled world. Yet, he looked down to Callie, (and reluctantly to the squirrel), he was not alone. A very small and almost nonexistent part of him, hoped it was true.

"You fought in the war?" Callie inquired, curious of her saviors background. He had done allot for her and she hardly knew anything about him, a problem she sought to rectify now and in the future.

"Until very recently, just a few days ago to be precise. I'm still not sure how I got here. Some problem with a slipspace rupture I think." He muttered thoughtfully, making her even more confused. What was this slipspace?

"Were all the soldiers like you?" He certainly seemed like a different kind, a breed apart, but then again, maybe he was normal where he came from. It was a harrowing notion, that a society would need such men to defend it.

"I was a...special soldier, better then most." He explained to her. Six wasn't sure he wanted to tell her the story of his origin. He didn't know what he would do if she was so horrified by it, and in extent him, that she would never talk to him again. Usually he wouldn't give a damn if anyone would speak with him. But in her case, it would destroy the spartan if she did not, something he did not like the implications of.

Callie took notice of his reluctance to talk. She was starting to be able to pick up his feelings, it was a subtle shift, but one she could detect. Not to mention the long bridge of silence spoke for itself. She decided that pushing him to talk about it could wait for another day. "I understand, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." She said soothingly, placing a out of proportion paw on his ebony armored back. She couldn't reach his shoulder, so it would have to do where it was.

"Thanks...Callie, maybe some day I will tell you." Six replied with gratitude, he would not have to worry about it today.

Suddenly there was a crash, they both turned to see what happened and saw that the squirrel had nocked over a pile of reference books and papers they had been on the desk. It looked to them innocently, sat down at the center of the wooden construct, and began nibbling it's own tail. Six sighed heavily, the little pest was quite a handful, it required almost constant supervision. He picked the squirrel back up and stuffed it back into it's containment pouch, hopefully it would stay in their, he didn't have any more fruit to distract it so he wasn't so sure. Still, it was better then having it roam around the office causing mayhem.

Callie was reminded that she had papers to deal with, the shower of leaflets and books jumpstarting her memory. "I have some things to take care of, what are your plans? How long are you staying?" She was afraid that his answer would be sooner then she liked.

"I had not planned on leaving to soon, unless you want me to?" He replied, he found himself hanging on her response with an unspartan like nervousness.

"NO!..." Callie yelped out if the blue, almost tossing the papers she had been collecting back into the air and onto the floor. She calmed her sudden heavy breathing, "I mean no, you don't have to leave." She said, patting down her now frizzled fur. She had just got him back and she wouldn't let him slip through her paws quite yet.

"Okay...that good." Six answered neutrally, but inside he was glad she still wanted him around.

"I have some papers to sign, things dealing with the daily aspects of running this city, so you can wait till I'm done." She suggested, beginning to scribble away at the start of the daunting pile of repurposed lumber.

"I'm fine with that, I'm used to waiting...are you the mayor?" He asked, just registering what she had said. Callie certainly looked the part. She had a professional aura around her, one he appreciated, most likely it triggered his ingrained instinct to respect and follow authority figures.

He was surprised and concerned when she sighed heavily, had he offended her? "I'm sorry if I said something wrong."

"No no, it's not you, it's just that I'm not the mayor." She muttered with a mild touch of anger.

"Then why are you doing the mayor's work?" He was honestly confused as to why she would, it did not make sense to the spartan.

"The Mayor." She started, applying a not to friendly tone to the title, "is too busy with golf and other trivial matters to do his job. So that leaves me to take up the slack." Callie sounded distressed about it, and that made Six...upset, he did not like the sound of, nor look of, an unhappy Callie.

"Who is the Mayor?" He asked, she could not detect the dark undertone in his voice.

"His name is Manx, a small rotund Kat, more suited to a job at the bakery then running a city." She replied, interested in path this was heading down.

"Manx...hmmm I'll have a few words with him, if there is one thing I dislike, it is a neglectful and ineffective leader." The UNSC had a stiff policy on negligence, one involving severe corporal punishment and a harsh jail sentence. The fight for humanity had little time for inconsequential politicians and other ranking members of society to screw around.

"I would like to be there when it happens." Callie said with a grin,'displaying her sharp teeth, it would be something to remember.

"If that is your wish." He replied simply, and then pushed the slightly bulging pouch on his chest back down, restraining the little furry head that tried to emerge. And for an extra measure he buckled the top and buttoned it. "Perhaps I will let the squirrel loose on him?"

Callie burst into light hiccuping laughter at his joke, her tail flopping uncontrollably, but while she laughed, Six just stopped cold, his ever rotating mental gears grinding to a halt. 'Did I just tell a joke?' He wondered to himself in amazement. The last time he had told a joke, he had still been in camp, a long time before the augmentation procedure. He didn't know what to feel about that, was it a good thing? Or a bad thing? What did it mean for him?

Apparently, to Callie it was a good thing. The giggling feline was shuffling papers, having collected them and sat down at the desk. Yet she was still laughing, it must have amused her more then he thought. When he realized that he had made her laugh, he felt a...warmth emanate from his otherwise frigid core.

"Wow, your always so serious, I didn't know you could tell jokes." She stuttered in-between dying chuckles.

"Neither did I...not since..." He trailed off quietly, not wanting to go back to those days, even in memory. His time in the program had not been a happy one. He had made no friends and the instructors loved to torment him and the other trainees. Not every one made it to the end alive.

Callie stopped laughing completely when he went silent, cutting himself off. This man was not a normal one. Something happened to him, and it had changed whoever he would have been into what he was now, and one day she would find out. Before she could offer her apologies at bringing up unwanted memories the buzzer on her cluttered desk went off with a harsh grating tone.

"Yes?" She inquired, pressing the button and speaking through the receiver.

"Ms. Briggs, lieutenant Felina Feral is here to see you." The secretary explained over the device. That wasn't good, she had no idea what Felina would do if she discovered that Six was here with her.

The spartan acted quickly, he hugged the wall to the side of the door, making sure not to make a sound, where he drew his huge magnum and KA-BAR, holding them at the ready, roughly at the assumed chest height of the officer. He did not want to take any chances with anyone, police or not.

Callie watched him with apprehension, surely he wouldn't hurt Felina. In any case, not letting her in would only arouse her suspicion. "One moment." Callie said cooly, taking her paw off the buzzer and walking to the door, the only sound in the office was the clicking of her heels on the floor. She was the epitome of calm as she confidently opened the door, the only tell was her nervous twitching tail. She couldn't seem to get it under control. It probably also had to do with the fact that Six was right next to her, unmoving, a mountain of armor and muscle, ready to uncoil at the slightest wrong move.

Standing in the door way, she saw Felina turn from the desk and march over to the now opened entryway with purpose. She would have walked straight into the office if Callie hadn't been standing under the doorframe. "Hey Felina, what can I do for you?" Her voice was steady, not betraying how nervous she was at the moment.

Felina looked at her with an odd expression on her muzzle. "I have been hearing very strange reports Callie, from what I have heard, you either have a giant robot guardian or a piece of prototype enforcer tech. What's going on?" She asked worriedly.

The two women were incredibly close friends, having been so since Felina first joined the core. They both had common interests and complaints, having to deal with bureaucracy on a daily basis. It was an odd friendship, a woman in politics and the other in the military, but it workered surprisingly well.

Callie was certain that she could trust her friend. The only problem would be how to get Six to understand without causing the situation to skew out of control.

"Callie?" Felina asked voice laces with concern, she had been quiet for a long time.

"One second." She replied, ducking her head back in to look at Six. She gave him a look that she could only hope he took as a signal to relax, luckily it worked. Very slowly, the spartan mag-locked his pistol and sheathed his short sword of a knife. Then he stepped away from the door to the side of the room.

With the crisis averted, Callie turned back to her friend. "Do you trust me?" She asked seriously, making Felina to get taken aback a little.

"Of course, why?" The cinnamon dust colored Kat asked curiously. The strange behavior of her friend worrying her.

"Just come inside, and don't freak out." Callie replied, saying the last part with a faint cringe.

Felina just shook her head, confused, and stepped inside, she looked around and did not see any reason to freak out. That is at least until she made out the hulking armored figure to the side of the door, shrouded in the dimly lit portion of the office ceiling lights. Reflexively she reached for her sidearm, but never even touched the grip with her lightning fast clawed digits.

The figure burst into movement, faster then a cheetah and plucked her off the ground like a child, grabbing her collard uniform shirt with a huge ebony gauntlet, so that her booted hindpaws hung a foot off the floor. She dangled there in the things unmoving hold and would have truly panicked if it had not been for the calm voice of Callie.

"Six, put her down." The tawny feline ordered firmly, and seconds later, the giant set her down softly onto the floor, and backed away, but kept itself close enough to nab her again if she did anything.

Not realizing she was shaking. Felina flipped back to look at her friend. "What is that thing!?" She hissed.

"It's not thing, it's a he." Callie scolded, not appreciating Felina's yowl.

Felina looked back to the thing and took a second longer glance, judging from the muscular masculine appearance, Callie was right, it was a he. In fact, the man seemed to be sculpted like a professional bodybuilder, all she could see was well defined muscle outlined by the strange black cables that could be seen where the thick armor plates were nonexistent. Felina blushed suddenly and fiercely as she noticed what train of though she was going down, she swung away from him quickly and focused back on her friend. "Fine, who is HE!?"

Callie took a moment to try to phrase her answer. "He is a...visitor from a far away place, and the one who saved me before." She added the last part, hoping that Felina would take it into consideration for when she decided what to do.

Felina turned to the strange armored man, who had not said a single word up to this point. "I suppose I should thank you for saving my friend." Even though she was thoroughly trounced by the man, she prided herself on her honor and respect. He had earned her grudging respect for his efficient takedown, being in the militant police, she prided herself on her own, she had been the best since the academy, so it was a little upsetting to meet someone who was her better.

"Just doing my job ma'am." The man replied humbly, his deep voice resonating in the now crowded office room. His tone was enchanting, she could listen to it all day.

Befuddled, Felina shook of that embarrassing thought and replied. "What exactly is your job?"

"I'm a soldier ma'am, UNSC Navy, Special Warfare, Group Three, SPARTAN-III Beta Company." He replied mechanically, his voice held a certain honest pride to it, he stood up a little bit straighter and went into parade rest.

"What's your name?" She asked, she would be lying if she said that he wasn't an impressive figure at he moment. Callie also was surprised to see this side of the man she had come to know, he didn't act at all like she had seen before.

"Spartan B312, Noble Six." He responded without hesitation, the presence of an officer, even of symmetric rank, switched him into professional mode.

"Your name...is Noble Six?" She wondered, it sounded more like a call-sign then a name.

He went quiet for a moment, and his reply was...soft and pained. "It is ma'am."

Seeing the upset glare of Callie, Felina figured out that it was a sore subject for the man, and apologized thusly.

"No harm done ma'am." He said, his tone was back to normal, clearly he was a master at locking down his emotions. Now that all the pleasantries were over, she could let loose her own guarded emotions.

Felina sighed and sat down, not caring that she was taking the only chair in the room. Frankly she deserved it, these two were quickly wearing down her reservoir of strength, and she would need it for the time to come. "All right, explain this all from the beginning."


	8. Chapter 8

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 8: Confrontation

Part 1

The explanation was done by Callie, Six was not one for long winded speeches. Even then, what Callie knew was not allot, the spartan was not very forthcoming with his recent past, so she did not have much to go on. By the time it was all said and done, Felina found herself even more confused then before.

"So your saying, that you are from a different world, and possibly universe?" Felina deadpanned, turning to the spartan with appraising hazel eyes. The whole story sounded like a bad Sci-Fi flick. She had scene allot of those in her downtime.

"Correct." Six replied in a no-nonsense gruff tone. He had been standing stock still since Callie had called him off, and he went to parade rest. The huge black armored man had not even twitched or shuffled in place, a boulder would move before he did. Felina would kill to have his self-restraint, patience and discipline.

"Well then..." She muttered deep in thought, leaning back in the brown leather office chair, causing it to squeak, the noise loud in the quiet room. This was a interesting situation, obviously there had not been any like it before so she had no precedent to go off of. This was definitely not a normal predicament. She had no idea what to do about about it, she could try to bring him in for more questioning. But just a glance at his intimidating armored muscular figure and the nasty looking weapons he carried, was a most definite deterrent. If he did not want to go, she knew that no one could make him. Maybe she could convince her uncle to grant him asylum as some sort of alien refugee? It wasn't a very promising idea, but it was the best she had at the moment. She voiced it to the pair and awaited their response.

The spartan did not say anything, he just slowly rotated his helmet to Callie, letting her decide. "I don't know, I doubt Commander Feral would believe it." She muttered uncertainly, nervously rubbing her manicured paws together. Feral had always been stubborn, almost to the point of stupidity. But, when it came down to it, he was a honorable Kat. They would just have to hope for the best.

"I wouldn't worry too much Callie, this guy here could probably deal with any problem singlehandedly." Felina reassured, motioning to mute mountain of armor at the side of the room.

"Affirmative." Six grunted confidently before becoming silent once more. Clearly he believed he could take care of any problem that dared to stand up to him.

"If your sure about this." Callie said to Six, she was worried for him, she had grown quite attached to the spartan. He had, since she met him, watched over her without asking for anything in return, absolutely nothing. She felt the need to ask him why. But before she could, Felina's radio went off, halting her attempt to find an answer.

"Lieutenant Feral here." She spoke into the small rectangular black device fixated to her grey and blue uniformed chest.

"This is officer Tobias, we have a critical situation developing at the R&D facility outside Megakat City!" A worried male voice replied rapidly. The faint sound of shouting and a car engine could be heard in the background.

"Report!" Felina barked sharply. Something serious was going down now, and the sooner she knew about it the better.

"Its Dark Kat, he just attacked the research compound, he has hostages and some new minions we have never scene before. They are large and armed with weapons. We can't get close without a hail of bullets sending us running back to cover. Two officers are already down, we need backup!" The Kat shouted, before the sound of gunfire cut him off.

Felina bolted up from the chair she had commandeered and headed for the door, tail flying around erratically behind her. Her men needed her help.

Six took a split-second to think, the defenders of the city were in trouble, a spartans duty was to the people and his fellow soldiers. He supposed he could convince himself that the rule applied here, appeasing his need to assist. He moved to catch up to Felina, easily reaching her before she could turn the door handle in her paw. Callie had run over as well, and looked to Six for an explanation, as did Felina.

"Those officers need help." He answered their unspoken questions gruffly and to the point.

Felina was about to object but knew that she could not stop him even if she wanted to, and she didn't. He could very well be the best backup they could ask for, so she nodded, acquiescing to his short but persuasive argument. Callie on the other hand, was not so understanding.

"You can't go! What if you get hurt?" She knew on the inside that a man such as he would probably not, but she remained concerned anyways. He had become a precious wall of solidarity to her hectic and fearful life. She had been captured many times by the villains who picked at this city, and every she was rescued, she was always afraid that the next time, she might not be so lucky. But now that Six was there, and seemed to thoughtlessly take up the job as her protector, she had not been afraid, for the first time in years. She just knew that he would keep her safe, no matter what. "And if you do go, there would be no going back, everyone would know about you for sure." She attempted to sway him one last time, hoping that it would work.

That however, was a valid argument. Six would lose his biggest card here on this planet, his unknown variable. The spartan would become a known figure, no longer shrouded in secrecy. Sure people had seen him already, but this would go in whatever news stations that ran here. It was an easy sacrifice to make. He would throw away his armor before he let himself be too afraid to do the right thing. "My duty is to the people." Six replied to her firmly. He saw her (and he never would admit it, even to himself), adorable tawny triangular ears droop sadly, and her eyes become shiny.

It hit him like a sangheili hoof to the chest, the expression she had. "And to you." He spoke softly, placing a giant charcoal-black gauntlet on her shoulder, his helmet turning down to her. Six found himself tempted to take it off so she could see his eyes and the seriousness of his words. Still, it seemed that she understood all the same because her ears perked back up and she smiled up at him. He, with the hands that had killed countless insurrectionist and Covenant soldiers, gently squeezed. Letting her truly know the value of his words, then he turned back to the door, and the waiting Felina. "Let's go."

As they walked out, Callie called out, halting them. "I'm going too, I'm not letting you out of my sight yet!" She meowed, running up to the pair, posture confident.

"I don't think you should Callie, its going to be incredibly dangerous." Felina warned, she worried about her friend. The calico cat had zero to no experience in fighting. She could easily get herself killed.

"I'll look out for her." Six reassured the enforcer Kat. If she wanted to come, he wouldn't stop her. In fact he didn't even want to leave her alone. She was the only one here he knew, at least that's the reason he told himself.

Felina scrutinized Six, the spartan was unflinching under her gaze. She sighed in defeat, "fine, but if she gets hurt I'll have your head!"

"She won't get hurt as long as I watch over her." He said with absolute certainty, making Callie's muzzle light up into a broad and warm smile.

"Whatever soldier boy, let's go." Felina smirked, displaying a single fang at the corner of her muzzle, before turning to head to the elevator. She wouldn't admit it, but she was a little jealous of her friend, she wished she had a man that thought like that about her. She muttered to herself condescendingly, now was hardly the time to think like that. And Felina was sure that their closeness was strictly platonic in nature.

While the woman headed to the elevator, Six hung back, he had not forgotten his diminutive fuzzy friend. He checked the secured pouch and saw that it was sleeping, curled up into a ball amongst the refuse of dehydrated fruit rations. He sighed in relief, it wouldn't be a problem at the moment. As he was sealing the pouch he had a brilliant idea. Six walked over to the secretary at the desk outside the office. She looked nervous as the large spartan approached, but she put a brave face on and smiled as friendly as she could.

"What can I do for you...Six?" She asked, taking a moment to recall his odd name.

He checked back real quick to see that Callie and Felina had just reached the elevator, then he turned back to the female black Kat. "I was hoping you could hold on to something for me?"

"Sure thing!" She mrowled brightly from her seat behind the desk, she was defiantly a cheerful individual, well suited to the secretary position.

"Can you watch over my little friend while I'm gone?" He asked, taking the sleeping squirrel out of the pouch and placing its slumbering form on the desk carefully. The Kat looked at the little guy and practically melted.

"Oh my gosh! Its so cute!" She yelped quietly, not wanting to wake up the sleeping squirrel.

"He can be a pest at times." Six grumbled, remembering several past incidents that weren't far back enough.

"It would be a pleasure to look after such a cute little guy." The secretary said, scooping him up and holding him, rocking the squirrel back and forth.

"Thanks, I can't take him where I'm going." It was true, the last thing he wanted or needed was a pesky squirrel in the middle of a firefight. The results would be...disastrous. Six almost shuddered at the thought of he ramifications of such an event.

"Thank me, thank you! I've always wanted to hold a squirrel and now I can." The black Kat said happily.

"Either way thanks...Karen." Six said, looking at the bronze nameplate at the edge of the desk. "I appreciate it, more than you know." She really had helped him, he couldn't take the little beast everywhere.

She blushed a dark pink under her ebony fur at the comment. But before she could say anything back, the spartan was already walking away. She watched him go with a sigh, the man was very polite, and not too bad looking under the armor.

XXXXXXXXXX

Six returned to the pair of female felines waiting at the elevator. Felina pressed the button with the downwards arrow key and backed up. She was startled when she saw that Six was heading for the stairwell, she was about to stop him when Callie put a paw on her shoulder. "Let him go, he has to take the stairs."

"Why?" Felina wondered.

"He told me that his weight would not allow him to ride inside one." Callie explained to her puzzled friend.

"How much does he weigh?"

"I don't know, but it must be allot, either way, he is not one to play jokes." Callie herself found it hard to believe as well, but she let it go.

"How will he get down there in time?" Felina asked, concerned that he would not arrive in time for them to leave.

"He is faster then you think." Callie said mysteriously, walking into the just opened elevator.

Felina followed her in and pressed the found floor button. The doors closed and the mechanisms began to draw it down to its destination. During the descent, Felina watched Callie carefully, something about her friend had changed, the calico Kat was more daring then she had ever been before. "What happened to you?" Felina finally asked as they reached the halfway point. "You aren't acting like the Kat I used to know."

Callie turned to her friend and answered. "I don't know, ever since Six entered my life, I have started to feel like I could do more, say more."

Felina nodded, the Callie she knew before would never have wanted to go to fight. This Six fellow had indeed changed her, for the better. Although she wished it wasn't at a time where she could get hurt. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, the duo walked out, and Felina froze. Six was standing by the entrance waiting for them, plated arms crossed and held to his thick black chestplate. She looked to Callie who only had a smug grin. "Told you." She teased sticking out her slightly barbed, pink feline tongue, and walked over to the spartan.

Shaking her furred head ruefully, she stepped over to join them. Felina half expected some boastful remark or prideful announcement. Most men could not help but squawk their prowess to the world. Instead the spartan just silently opened the door and held it for the two woman. She was startled by the humble man and his courtesy and found herself blushing as she walked through the portal to the outside. "Thank you." She said meekly, not sure how else to handle the situation.

"Ma'am." He replied, closing it behind them. It was a respect thing for the spartan, she was of sufficient ranks to have earned it in his eyes. Most officers of the UNSC were brave and effective leaders. It was their tireless dedication and skill that kept humanity from extinction. It was safe to assume that officers in this world were equally respected and valuable, although. not to the same extent as UNSC ones. That is why he held the door for them, not to mention because it was the nice thing to do.

Once outside, the trio headed for one of those squad cars that Six saw the night he saved Callie from those muggers. As the women climbed in, He mulled back to that moment, now that he got to know Callie, he knew that he wouldn't have been so merciful if he met them at this point in time. Just the thought of those grubby bastards trying to waylay her filled him with potent rage.

"Let's go soldier boy!" Felina yowled from the driver's seat, clawed paws kneading the wheel impatiently. She wanted to get going as soon as possible, her men were in trouble.

Six turned to eye the motor vehicle with apprehension, would it hold his weight? "What are you waiting for?" Felina muttered. With that, he stomped over to the car, opened the rear door gently, and sat down as lightly as he could. The car groaned in complaint, the metal skirt almost reaching the asphalt as it sank low. Felina, muzzle dropped, "how much do you way big boy?"

"Allot." He grunted uncomfortably from the back seat, his posture stooped, the spartan being too tall to sit up straight. His helmet almost reached his abdomen as leaned forward.

"Comfortable?" Felina asked, the smallest trace of a grin on her nutty brown muzzle. To make matters worse, Callie was not nearly as subtle, snickering softly at the completely absurd and unseemly position of the now sullen spartan.

"Just drive." Six growled, not at all enjoying the confined space and barely suppressed sniggers coming from the front of the car. Whoever attacked this research facility would pay dearly for their transgressions.

Now openly laughing at the grumpy spartan, Felina turned the ignition, making the engine explode into sound. With the press of a leather booted hindpaw to the gas pedal, the car rocketed towards the facility outside town. A faint peel of feminine laughter and smoke trailing after the speeding vehicle.

XXXXXXXXXX

An uncomfortable ten minute car ride later, they arrived at the outer layer of the massive complex. The R&D facility was one of most well guarded places in Megakat City. The many opaque blue windowed buildings were protected by a encompassing cement wall and the best security systems money could buy.

For the inside of these structures housed some of the most revolutionary tech and medical projects currently being worked on by the brightest feline minds of the century. It was the hope of the enforcers that the work going on in there would at the very least balance the playing field with the many villains who sought to take control of the city. Now it seemed that one of these villains wanted the treasure trove of technology that lay within for themselves.

As they pulled up to the gate, they saw a wrecked squad car, the vehicle wreathed in flames and pierced by a plentitude of holes. A long ways behind it were an additional three cars, although they were undamaged, and had half a dozen officers crouched behind them. Another two were leaned against the middle car, with a Kat attending to them. The party assumed that they were out of range of whatever defenders Dark Kat had placed. The situation looked a fair bit worse then they had thought.

Felina lithely jumped out of the car and ran to her men. Callie less gracefully followed after her, stumbling as she tried to replicate her athletic friend's agility, and grumbling when she failed utterly. Meanwhile, Six sat in the back of the car and tried to figure out how to get out of the it without annihilating it when he hit the maximum frustration he could take in one day. The spartan was very displeased at the moment.

Felina went to the senior officer on sight and demanded to know what was going on. The blue and grey armored Kat explained. "Ma'am, Dark Kat arrived an hour ago, we currently have no idea how he entered undetected. Whatever he did, the defenses shut down and his henchman rushed inside. The only warning we revived was a call from a scientist before he was nabbed. When we arrived on scene half an hour ago, the gates were bared and some of Dark Kat's lackeys had set up some sort of machine-gun nest. Car 40 attempted to get close, and you can see the result." He gestured to the totaled flaming vehicle at the front of the gates. "We managed to recover the two officers inside, they are still alive but are in a bad way. Since then we haven't made any more moves."

The officer sounded strained, she couldn't see his face with the enforcer helmet covering it, but it was obvious he was only a rookie, thrust into a position he had no idea how to handle, Felina felt sorry for him. Luckily she was here now and could take over. "Good job officer, I need you to tend to your men and see about calling in some heavier support." The truth of the matter was that they needed to get inside now, who knew what Dark Kat was doing with all that tech and information, but she was unwilling to sacrifice her men's lives. Not only that, but Felina was also concerned about this report of new minions, they had been lucky that the evil feline employed or created, or whatever he did, to get his creeplings. The little bastards were relatively easy to deal with in small numbers. She balked at the thought of new adversaries.

There was a loud groan of relieved metal as Six finally managed to escape the confines of his metal prison, the car returned to its original height. The sound attracted the attention of everyone in the immediately vicinity. The giant armored spartan stretched stiffly, revving up cramped muscles. At the sight of him the enforcers gapped collectively and watched in awe as the huge slab of ebony armored muscle thundered over, his plated boots emitting a loud resounding clangs as the titanium alloyed soles bit into the concrete at every step. He stopped beside Callie and Feline, going into a rest position, ignoring the awed gazes of the officers. They had never before seen such a terrifying man, robot, thing.

Feline filled him in on the situation, finishing by telling him they were going to wait for reinforcements. Six nodded his head. They had a plan, but the spartan was going to follow his own. It was fairly simple and easy to follow. Step 1: enter compound, step 2: kill everything standing in his way. There was no step 3.

Six unslung his MA37 assault rifle and racked the bolt, cycling the first lethal round into the chamber. After that he headed for the gate. Felina, who had turned away to continue to talk to her men, heard the spartan's boots as he walked away. "What are you doing?"'she demanded, the guy must be crazy! There was no way he could get through by himself, fancy armor or no.

"My job ma'am." He replied steadily, not stopping nor turning around.

Callie was about to run to him when Felina held her back, grabbing her arm. "Wait! You'll get yourself killed!" She scolded her friend. There was no way she would let her go out there.

"But he can't just do that." She mewled trying to escape Felina's iron hard grip, thinking that the spartan was surely plodding to his demise.

Six neared the gate and spied out a broken window on the fifth floor terrace of the building set in front of the entrance. His enhanced vision could easily pick out the huddled forms of two some what large brown figures. Whatever they were, they were not Kats. By the time Six actually reached the locked gate, the unknowns were grouped behind a large weapon that could only be a machine gun. The lead one aimed it at Six and flexed its hands.

As the deadly barrage of rounds flew towards him, the spartan simply twisted to the side and aimed his rifle almost dismissively, pulling the trigger. With a double bark, two 7.62x51mm FMJ armor-piercing rounds flew out of the barrel with a smokey belch and flash of light. The shots were perfect, both flew up to the gunners and drilled into their respective target's cranium. With a splash of oddly colored blood, they slumped lifeless in the nest. The attack had not touched Six in the slightest. He resumed his trek towards the gate and smashed it open with a boot. The lock shattered into metallic shrapnel and he stomped in, leaving the Kats outside to stare in amazement.

Felina stared at the spartan's retreating figure with awe. She had not seen such skill and efficiency in her life. Six was probably even more dangerous then she gave him credit for.

Callie was the only one who had not stared so openly, she knew he was a great warrior. Whatever world required such men as he must be a very harsh place. That got Callie thinking, what was he like before he was a soldier, and why did he choose to be one?

Felina looked to Callie. "I would tell you to stay behind, but I know you'll just come anyways." Callie grinned innocently, making her friend chuckle. "Just stay close to me and the others." With her instructions given, she turned to her men. "Well, it looks like we have are way in!" Felina barked to her men. She drew her handgun and went in the direction of the gate. "Let's move! We can't let him take all he glory!" The other officers shouldered their rifles and followed after their leader. After them came a nervous but determined calico cat.

XXXXXXXXXX

Six walked into the compound, leaving the others behind. He was a lone wolf, the only team he would ever work with were left on the glassed of Reach. No one else had earned his commitment and loyalty, that is at least, until he met Callie. Something about her instilled in himself something that was not quite what he had with noble team, it was a different feeling, one he could not properly place as of yet.

As he thought about that, something kicked off in his mind, a sixth sense if you will, it made him jump to the side without warning. The spot he had just vacated was filled with a sea of lead, he continued his diving role until he reached a building opposite of were the attack came from. The spartan berated himself harshly, he needed to keep himself focused on his task. Mistakes were unacceptable.

Six peeked around the corner and got a good glance at his enemy for the first time. They were not anything he had seen before.

Manning a second weapons emplacement were five very dangerous and odd looking brown creatures. Smaller then a hunter, but larger then an elite, these things were wearing some form of metallic body armor that only covered what he supposed were their vital organs. Each creature looked as if it could throw him like one would a piece of trash.

Their faces were dominated by a saurian type muzzle, on which a pair of dark intelligent orbs resided. Their teeth were like daggers and the fiends boasted a obtuse muscular physique. They could tussle with a sangheili and come out on top. It was obvious to Six that he would have to respect these new foes, but he was confident. Sure they looked tough but the outcome would remain unchanged, Six never lost, and today would be no different.

He wall-crawled to the edge of the corner and readied his rifle. If he wanted to take out the enemy position he would need to be quick. Then he almost smacked his helmet, what a fool, he had the active-camo! Six pressed the small button in the oblong integrated wrist device, causing the spartan to disappear slowly, until all that could be seen was the wall he leaned upon. Satisfied that he would remain undetected, he walked out into the open, striding over to the nest of enemies with a grim purpose.

Now that he was closer, he could get a better picture of his new foes. Indeed, they appeared to be reptilian, having burnished bronze scales and long black claws. The claws looked sharp and deadly enough to actually damage his MJOLNIR. Close combat with these creatures would be inadvisable Six hypothesized. Without warning, the gunner lifted his scaled head and began to sniff the air, taking huge air guzzling breaths through his long saurian nose. After a moment his beady black eyes settled on the approximate location of the stealthed spartan.

It would seem that they could somehow sniff him out, that was not good. The beast snarled something unintelligible in a guttural tongue and swiveled the large weapon on the tripod to the cloaked spartan. The other reptilians pulled rifles from their concealed places under the makeshift barricade. The gunner roared an obvious challenge and depressed the black trigger of the beastly machine gun spraying a tsunami of heavy calibre rounds.

"Shit." Six groaned.


	9. Chapter 9

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 8: Confrontation

Part 2

The first thing Six felt was the concussive force of a dozen pointed metal objects impact against the center of his chestplate, causing his camo to wink out. His shield bar dropped drastically to the quarter mark, alarming the spartan. Thinking fast, he dove under the assault, took a knee, and loosed a blanket of suppressive fire, making the saurians hunker down to avoid it. But the effort was futile, these rounds were ment to shred light vehicles, so they made short work of the sandbag like barricade they had set up. Six fired three-quarters of his clip into the saurian made-construct.

The high-velocity ballistic projectiles tore through the bags with little puffs of dust and flew among the attackers. He could hear the not so pleasant roars of the wounded beasts. They clearly did not appreciate his earnest attempt to wipe them out. The lead reptile, supporting a profusely bleeding arm, (that didn't seem to slow it down in the slightest), ripped the gun from its nest, and charged the baffled spartan, firing it wantonly. His two lackeys followed after him, the remainders lay unmoving behind the barricade. The reckless rush caught the spartan by surprise. That's when the horrible truth made itself known, the saurians had more of their number then he had realized. The building right behind the position disgorged three more of the beasts with the bang of a blue door slamming open. Now reinforced, the lizard men charged with greater speed and fervour.

Six emptied the remainder of his spent clip into the closest lizard, its knees buckled and it fell to the ground, the last round blowing the left half of its face of in a greenish red haze of gore. Simultaneously, he snatched his magnum and fired the powerful rounds into the nearing horde. Two more bronze scaled beasts received a lethal dose of lead. He split the eight round clip evenly between the two, the armor-piercing high-explosive rounds sliced through the strange metallic armor of his foes. They continued to burrow into their chests, dicing up vital organs and creating fist sized craters as they exited out the back, shredding the spines of his adversaries. Now back down to the original targets, Six heard a loud groaning cough. The saurian with the HMG in his clawed fingers tried to disembowel him with an inaccurate barrage. The lizard man was going for quantity over quality.

In order to prevent his shield from collapsing, Six was forced to evade the erratic shooting coming from the big dinosaur creature. This was not without sacrifice, because of his evasion, Six was not prepared for the three lizard men, (who had survived the quick skirmish), when they closed in to attack. The spartan latched his rifle to his back, and had the shotgun halfway drawn when an eight-hundred pound slab of armored reptilian bone and flesh brought him to the ground, sending the partially gripped weapon bouncing across the floor out of reach.

As they wrestled, Six realized two things. One, he was in fact significantly stronger then a single one of these beasts. And two, he was not in fact, fighting only one of these things. While he was busy trying to dislodge the saurian on his chest, one other pinned his armored legs to the floor. Now immobile, he was forced to watch, struggling, as the leader sauntered over confidently and brought the stock of his large rifle, (that really should be a mounted weapon), crashing down on his helmet.

The spartan's vision flashed white with purplish dots, as his helmeted head was force to the concrete by the force of the blow. It was strong enough to disorientate him, his recently charged shields went down a full thirty-two percent from that solitary blow. As he thrashed, trying to escape the clutches of his three attackers, the lead one brought the stock down half-a-dozen more times. Almost unconscious and now bleeding from his brow, the spartan tried desperately to escape. Another pound to the helmet, causing an infinitesimal hairline fracture on his black helmet visor, cemented the fact he could die. Six had made a fatal mistake, he had acted as if he still had noble team with him, providing cover, covering his back. Yet in point of fact, he was alone, there was no backup this time. No Carter or Jorge to pull him out of the fire. It looked like this was the end for the noble spartan. He might have been able to fight his way out if not for the debilitating memories that resurfaced, freezing his muscles and bringing with them that feeling of helplessness and fear he experienced years ago.

XXXXXXXXXX

Half an hour ago, Chance and Jake had been in the garage when the news turned in with the dreaded alert tone. The reporter, Ann Gora, had started to talk about a break in and hostage situation at the R&D facility a few kilometers outside the city.

When they heard that, they had stopped their halfway restoration of an old junker and bolted down to the hanger. After sliding down their respective ladders they suited up and headed for the Turbokat. With practiced ease, the duo equipped themselves and launched the jet in record time.

"It's gotta be Dark Kat." Razor deduced as he ran a systems check on the Turbokat, deftly tapping away on the board with rehearsed movements and experienced paws. The nefarious purple Kat was the only villain that went for technology or weapons research. He wanted it to destroy Megakat city and rebuild what he wanted out of the ashes. No doubt, no upstanding or noble Kat would want, or find a place there.

"It would have to be that sleaze-ball wouldn't it?" T-bone grunted angrily. The bulky tan tabby had a serious grudge against the large purple Kat. He was responsible for getting them both kicked out of the enforcers, and was the reason they had to slave endlessly in the workshop day in and day out. So you could say out of all the villains, T-bone hated Dark Kat the most.

"He does seem to be the culprit." Razor muttered in agreement, finishing up his fine tuning. "Well the Turbokat's ready to go, and so are we."

"Yeah." T-bone chuckled, "Dark Kat won't no what hit em." He throttled the joystick, sending the Turbokat screaming through the skies towards the lab. "Time to kick some tail!" He whooped, followed by Razor.

XXXXXXXXXX

While the heroes sped to save the day, a certain villain was currently basking in triumph. Even now, his lesser minions, those pathetic creeplings, were hauling invaluable tools and technology aboard his recently refurbished Fear Ship. It had taken awhile, but now it was back and better then ever.

He stared contemptuously at the frail little winged creatures. He had to suffer the use of them for too long, but now! He had much more suitable warriors. Even as he thought that, one of the said warriors stomped over to him and barked a sentence of growls and snarls at him. "That demon, here?...interesting." He mused to himself. He would very much like to see what this demon was and how it would fair against his new ravagers. "Let us go deal with this...disruption."

With a flourish of his cape, Dark Kat stalked away from the diminutive loading crew and headed for this "demon" with his own personal handpicked ravagers. "We shall see who will win this time!" He chuckled darkly. And the Kat had a feeling he knew who would come out on top.

XXXXXXXXXX

Callie, Felina, and the officers that had not elected to stay behind to tend to the wounded chased after the spartan. They were not nearly as fast, and so had to take a long time to catch up. When they rounded a corner they were met with a terrible sight.

The seemingly invincible spartan had been toppled, his arms and legs constricted by two massive reptilian beasts. A third was repeatedly bashing His helmet with the end of what looked like a HMG. Six was unable to escape, and sat there getting brutal pounded, his helmet making a crater in the floor, its size increasing with every hit. They could see that he had put up quite a fight before he succumbed to the numbers, a smattering of bodies led up to his current position and another pair of corpses were sprawled over the nest constructed by the far building.

When Callie saw her savior, she let out a faint mewl. It was beyond terrible to see him laid so low. Felina, the warrior, had a different reaction. She aimed her pistol and fired off an angry volley of 9mm rounds, shortly afterwards her fellow officers followed suit with their rifles.

The 9mm rounds did not have much affect on the armor and tough hide of the saurians, only pitting the metal and punching small holes in the scales. The rifles however had a much greater reaction. The 7.56mm FMJ bullets ripped through the arms of the lizards holding the spartan, and knocked the larger one with the heavy machine gun backwards. As soon as they loosened their grip, the furious charcoal-black MJOLNIR clad demon soared into action with feral rage.

His ebony gauntlet wrapped around the throat of the one that had his arms, and he yanked violently to the side. The beast's head twisted with a sickening wet crunch and went lifeless. He tossed the corpse to the side and snatched his knife out if its sheath, ramming it deep into the second reptile's gut, dragging the serrated blade up through the chest, sawing into soft fragile organs and straight through its chest to lodge it into the lizard's under-jaw. Six left the squealing scaled victim and tackled the leader to the ground.

With an audible roar that seemed to make the very air quake, he brought both of his gauntleted fists smashing down upon its chest, shattering its ribcage and annihilating its internal organs. With his foes thoroughly eliminated Six climbed to his feet, slowly, and ponderously walked over to the still howling creature with his knife speared in its mouth. With contemptuous spite the spartan stomped down on its head, exploding it like a overripe melon, sending grey matter and shards of cranium all over the once pristine concrete.

Six slowly retrieved his knife from the puddle of gore, (the weapon dripping scarlet and emerged colored blood), wiped it off on the flattened corpse, and collected his errant pistol and shotgun, retiring them to their individual homes and sheathing his blade. After that he seemed to stand their, unmoving. Ignoring the horrified looks from the ones who had provided the means for him to release his anger, that is until Callie sprinted over and hugged him fiercely.

XXXXXXXXXX

Six needed to calm down, needed to repress those terrible memories. It had been over eleven years since that test at the camp, he was not back there, there was no scientist, no Doctor Bertrund. Easy breaths, low heart rate, back to normal. After awhile he had reached an emotional equilibrium, back to operational effectiveness. He would not allow his flashbacks to compromise his objective.

A fluffy missile slammed into his legs, almost causing the staggered spartan to loose his balance."Ohmygodareyouokayithoughtyouweregoingtodieiwassoworried!?" A breathless voice asked with way too much breath to speak a stream of words that he could barely comprehend.

He looked down to the erratic fuzzy object that had clung to his chest. "Callie?" He wondered softly, her sudden arrival bringing him out of his painful memory loop.

At the soft spoken sound of her voice her rampant train of thought came crashing to a halt. "Six, are you okay?" She asked, eyes watering as she checked him over with a determined physicians eye and inquisitive paws, feeling his armored chest and body for anything that could pass as an injury.

"I'm fine, just a bruised ego, should have remembered I didn't have my team with me." He muttered sheepishly, it was not easy for the spartan to admit a fault.

"Are you sure?" She asked again, still deeply concerned for her savior's health. The last thing in all of existence she wanted was for harm to befall him.

"I'm sure, takes more then that to kill a spartan." He chuckled lightly, simultaneously burying the memory that still lingered farther down his subconscious. "We should move, we still have an objective to accomplish."

Felina strode up to the pair, her men keeping distance from the massive killing machine that had so brutally destroyed the saurians trying to hold him down. "So soldier boy, hanging in there?" She tried to come off casual, but her posture and tone of voice displayed her worry. "Looked like you were getting your ass handed to ya back there, at least until you broke free..." She stopped and shuddered, she had never before seen such vivisective combat in all her admittedly short time in the force.

"I'm still operation effective ma'am." He replied stoically, even as their eyes were drawn to the hairline fracture crossing down the right side of his polarized visor. Even under the armor that must have left some sort of wound.

"Are you injured?" She asked, hoping that he would take off his helmet, a little bit to make sure he wasn't, allot to see what kind of alien face his under that unforgiving mask.

"Just a small concussion and slight skin tear, marginal bleeding." He replied efficiently, naming off all the injuries with a clinical detachment. "I'm still able to fulfill the mission parameters ma'am."

"You should take care of that." Callie prompted, once more worried about his health.

"Callie's got a point, can having wounded soldiers fighting." Felina backed up. Both women interested in his wellbeing and wanting to see what he looked liked.

"Standard procedure is to never take off your helmet in a on active war zone, not until the fight has concluded." Six replied, reciting his remembered rules of warfare, hammered into since his first days of training. Also, he was uncomfortable with taking his helmet off around others, even fellow spartans. It was his security blanket so to speak, a means for him to act confident and strong. Without it he would feel naked, exposed.

Both felines sighed in defeat. "Fine, but first thing afterwards, we are addressing those wounds!" Felina retorted, her tone brooking no argument, even from the massive intimidating spartan.

"...I..." He began to say before she gave him the 'eye'. "...yes ma'am." Six muttered sullenly, conceding to her glare. Callie snickered quietly at this, the spartan's audio suite easily picking it up over the open air. He turned to give the tawny female Kat an unamused look, proven ultimately useless because of the one-way visor, thwarting any attempt on his part to convey his displeasure.

"Now let's get moving!" Felina barked to her men, and the turned to Six. "Your coming with us, no argument."

"Fine, but I'll take point." He growled, walking over the corpses of his foes and leading the group to the center of the facility, the only logical ace for the enemy to hole up. This time he kept his eyes on his motion tracker and drew his rifle, reloading it and keeping the clip, perhaps he could make more ammo later, if he managed to establish a permanent base.

Felina and her men followed after the armored giant, with Callie in tow. Her thoughts lingered on Six, she would have really liked to see his face. She looked up, trying to think about something else when she saw a very familiar sight. "Look it's the SwatKats!" She altered the group with a smile. With them and Six, this should end up being a walk in the park!

"SwatKats." Felina mumbled, she supposed they could use the help.

"SwatKats?" Six growled, were they enemies. "Enemy reinforcements?" He asked Felina

"No, just some guys who had the smarts and knowhow to make something of themselves." She replied, no making any sense to the spartan.

"So, not hostiles?"

"Yeah, not hostiles." Felina affirmed, "although sometimes I wan to treat em like hostiles, cocky bastards." She muttered ruefully.

Six just shrugged his broad ebony armored shoulders and pawed the grip of his rifle. "What's the plan now?"

"I guess we should just wait for them, they have a habitat of making a grand entrance otherwise." The cinnamon colored Kat replied with a sigh, obviously she has had experienced with that in the past.

"Affirmative, holding position." Six grunted, stopping his leading pace and took position, scanning for any hostiles in front of them, while the officers gawked at the approaching aircraft.

Felina have him am appreciative look, she loved a disciplined man, and she didn't even blush at the thought this time. Then she got an idea, a trick she could play on the SwatKats. "Hey Six?"

"Ma'am?" He inquired from his position alongside her, still scanning for threats with his rifle.

"Scout ahead, a few meters around the corner." She ordered with a mischievous chuckle.

"Copy that, moving forward." He replied all business, standing up and walking out of sight to get a good read of the way up front. Unaware that he was being used in a devious plan.

Callie looked at Felina disappointedly, understating her motivation behind all this. "Do you have to play around Felina?" She reprimanded her friend, although a small smile on her muzzle gave her away.

"Yes. Yes I do." She retorted, sticking her tongue out in an unprofessional way, Callie making her a little more loose then she normally would be.

XXXXXXXXXX

Razor and T-Bone finally arrived at the R&D facility after a six minute flight at normal speed. Razor used the camera built into the bottom of the Turbokat to take a detailed view on the compound as they approached. Soon he could begin to make out shapes. "It looks like the gate is broken and there is a busted squad car with three others. I can see two prone Kat's, and two others, most likely they are tending to the two who must he wounded." He reported to T-bone, who was too busy flying to check himself.

"Looks like, we're late to the party." The tabby said with a tinge of anger, he was missing out on all the action! "Let's get going, I'll land the Turbokat in an open spot inside and we'll proceed on foot. It'll be better for us on the ground, too many buildings to use the jet effectively." He concluded after a few seconds of thought.

"Hmm...I suppose you're right, alright then, you up for a little ground action?" Razor asked with a smirk, already knowing the response.

"Damn right, it's almost as fun as flying!" T'bone growled, angling the Turbokat to land just inside the facility's walls. With the help of the VTOL engines, the managed to get a snug landing zone just inside the gate and to the left a few meters. The engines whined down with a petering snarl, until all the noise that could be heard was the ticking and clicking of cooling turbines. The cockpit popped with a hiss and rolled back, allowing the two vigilantes to hop out.

"Ready to rock and roll?" Razor inquired, making sure his Glovatrix was ready for combat.

"Do you even have to ask?" T-bone fired back with a sharp grin, he relished hand to hand combat, although Razor was always his better in that field he still enjoyed it immensely.

"Nah, but I do anyways, one can never be too sure." Razor chuckled. "After you, meat slab." He gestured for the much larger Kat to go first.

"Bronze before brain huh?" T-bone remarked before walking forward, waiving gamely to the enforcers just outside the gate.

"Showoff." Razor muttered with a grin, following after his friend, heading deeper into the research base. Their jolly mood was stunted when they came across the graphic location of what must have been an intense firefight. There were eight unidentified creatures that reminded the duo of ancient dinosaurs, well if they had body armor and walked on two legs anyways.

"What in the hell are these?" T-bone muttered, nudging a flattened corpse with one of his clawed toes.

"Must be a new creation of Dark Kat's, he probably got tired off the little creeplings." Razor hypothesized, setting down one of the scaled beasts dagger clawed hands. "Clearly he wanted a much more lethal pawn."

"Whatever, these have got to be some of the ugliest critters I has ever seen." T-bone spat, he was definitely not a fan of the monsters. "We should keep moving, someone killed these things, that means some enforcers are deeper inside."

"Let's go then." Razor agreed, getting up from his assumed crouch at the side of one of these new reptilian foes. A quick jog later they arrived at a crossroads, a kind of intersection between a grouping of buildings. Inside the crossroads were a squad of enforcers, Felina (she must he leading this detachment), and...Ms. Briggs? What was she doing here?

"The cavalry has arrived!" T-bone boasted, strutting into the open. Razor followed behind more subdued, not one for grand entrances.

"I wouldn't call you the cavalry." Felina smirked. "We have our own."

"Really? Who could compare to the SwatKats?" The tabby asked surprise. What Felina had said sparked a sense of unease in his partner, off the bat there was one thing he could thing of that fit that role, and considering that Ms. Briggs was here, he had a good idea that his hunch was correct.

With an even wider grin then before Felina called out to someone around the corner. "Six, give me a sitrep."

"Who's s..." T-bone trailed off, speechless, when a massive behemoth a slab of armored bipedal muscle walked into sight, his boots thundering on the concrete, as he strode over to Felina, the tall female dwarfed by his incredible height.

"No targets on the approach, motion scanner indicates that the path is clear." The man growled down to her as his obsidian death-mask turned to regard the duo with...disdain? He almost unnoticeably raised his rifle, is size up the new arrivals. By this time Six had an inkling of why she had done this and decided to play along. "Are these hostiles? Should I...remove them ma'am?" His voice was as hard as steel and held a knee shaking growl.

"I don't know, what do you think Callie?" Felina turned to her friend, who was watching the two vigilantes sweat in their proverbial boots. (They didn't wear shoes when in disguise, the reasons for this are unknown).

"I think...we should let them off the hook." She answered with a snerk. Barely repressing her laughter at the situation and their expressions.

"Very well, stand down Six." Felina waived off, almost royally. As if he was some personal bodyguard at her beck and call.

"Orders received and understood, standing down." Six replied, with his usual strict military tone, moving his rifle into rest position and thudding back to his place at the front of the group.

T-bone and Razor, who had been frozen, finally melted when the giant walked away, his undetectable gaze moving in to different realms. "Who...was that." T-bone gasped, taking a breathe he had not realized he had been holding.

"That, was Six, and for any other information, you would have to ask him yourself." Felina responded with disinterest. As if the armored giant was an everyday thing. On the inside she was laughing her fuzzy ass off, it had been too good! She would have to thank Six later for his additional touch, it had just been icing on the cake!

"Six...huh...big guy." T-bone muttered, that was an understatement.

"So...what's the situation." Razor asked, still partially thinking about the giant who was at the front of the group.

It took a few minutes for Callie and Felina to explain what was going on to the duo, who were half paying attention and half glancing repeatedly to the spartan, expecting him to disappear, as if he had been some elaborate hoax.

"Definitely Dark Kat then? Huh we guessed so." Razor mused. "He must be here for something in particular."

"It doesn't matter, we need to find him and kick his tail!" T-bone muttered impatiently, he was not one for standing around. They should get moving!

"Slow your horses stripes." Felina ordered, "we need to consider this with level heads."

Callie got bored of watching the the two Kats clash and walked over to Six. She wanted to down spend more time with him. "Hey Six." She greeted, walking over to the spartan's position.

"Callie." He replied, his rifle still sweeping ponderously for threats, even as the enforcer officers started to slack off, more interested in the verbal sparring between that T-bone character and Felina, Razor was staring helplessly between the two. If Six was in charge of these men he would have punished them harshly, slacking was a criminal offense in the UNSC. Humanity could not afford to make mistakes. Vigilance was the key to survival.

"I know I keep asking this, but are you really okay?" She was perpetually worried about him, seeing him so restricted and beaten had been terrible for her. He was her protector, a job he took she reminded herself, for no compensation whatsoever.

"The bleeding has stopped and my suit reads that my concussion has faded." He replied evenly. Not realizing that his uncaring tone upset her further.

"But are you okay?" She stressed the you, clearly, she wanted to know his emotional and psychological condition.

"That was hardly my first encounter with death, and it won't be my last." He replied easily, once again aggravating her.

"How can you be so flippant with your own life?"'she demanded heatedly. His life meant more to her then it did to himself!

"The day I became a spartan I knew I was going to die in battle. It's what they raised me for." He told her, speaking with such certainty that it chilled her blood.

Her mind was swirling with questions. Raised? They had raised him to fight? Why would a society do that? Who exactly was he under that black uncaring helmeted visage? What was his life like before all of this? "Six I have to kn-"

"Get down!" He shouted suddenly, grabbing her shoulder and slamming her to his chest as quickly and gently as he could, turning from some unseen danger. Second later the sound of metal pellets impacting against a wall of lighting reverberated in her head. Her eyes beheld a beautiful and terrible sight. The spartan was wreathed in golden energy, which was the byproduct of his shield being struck by dozens of bullets. He carried her through the hail of gunfire, halfway to cover his shield shattered, allowing the rounds to plink against his armor scratching and scouring the black paint. Finally he reached cover and placed his back on the wall, gently placing Callie down to safety.

She had by this time recovered her wits and was shaking, death had been closer to her then ever before. She turned to look into the emotionless ebony helmet of her savior, once again he pulled her out of he fire, at peril to his own life. "Thank you." She said softly, trying to find her voice.

"I made a promise, and I never break them." Six replied, his tone soft and comforting. The spartan knew that the best tone to address a shellshocked civilian with, was calm and collected one. Now he had to see who had dared to try and kill his charge. He leaned out if cover and saw the biggest and purples Kat he had ever laid eyes on. The would be murderer was standing on the far side of the road with a mass of those saurian creatures, this must be that Dark Kat he heard Felina and that T-bone fellow talk about.

Speaking of them, they were hiding at the opposite side of the structure to his, along with the Razor guy and the stunned enforcers. They had almost not made it, their lack of situational awareness could've killed them.

"You would dare interfere with my plan!" The garishly purple Kat demanded haughtily from behind his dino men. His voice was laced with contempt and righteous indignation, he was not happy.

"Oh we dare!" T-bone called out mockingly, from cover.

"Fools, you think you can stop me? My new creations, my...ravagers, will make short work of you!" He shouted, signaling for his hoard to attack. "Kill them all! And bring me the corpse of this demon!"

As the tide of scales approached, Six moved to grab his rifle, but realized he left it behind in order to save Callie. It looked like he would be doing this Emile style, he grabbed his shotgun and leaped out of cover. Startling his adversaries and horrifying his allies. With a snarling roar, he reached the first victim, the shotgun barked and the cycle of death began.


	10. Chapter 10

Heart Of Iron

Chapter 8: Confrontations

Part 3

With the force of an entire offensive line, Six impacted against the nearest saurian, powdering bone and liquifying organs. He steamrolled over the recently deceased sack of scales and shoved the smoking barrel of his shotgun into his next target's maw. Its eyes zeroed in on Six's merciless visor with a fearful look, he pulled the trigger and splattered its large skull all over his shield and the unfortunate victim's surrounding compatriots, simultaneously freeing the weapon. Not losing his momentum, the spartan waived his roaring shotgun sideways, emptying the 8 gauge pellets into the crowd ahead of him. Four ravagers became limbless, lifeless, and extinct dinos. The shotgun ran dry with a clank, the last smoldering shell clattering to the floor in a small pile, Six didn't miss a beat, he threw his spent shotgun into the nearest living saurian, nocking it off its feet and collapsing its snout with a nauseating crunch. He drew his knife and magnum, akimbo, and leaped into the hoard, taking a life with each slash and bark of his pistol. He was enraged, these creatures had exposed and used his weakness, and for that transgression they would all pay, with their lives.

As the engine of destruction they knew as Six tore the collective force of Dark Kat's might a new asshole, Callie, Felina, the officers, and the SwatKats watched in awe. The level of lethality that he exuded was majestic in its own way, the spartan having turned war into an art-form. "Holy crap!" Razor exclaimed, watching with disbelief as Six took an unbelievably punishing amount of gunfire, shield flaring, and still managed to toss one of the saurians a dozen feet in the air.

Dark Kat watched with growing frustration, things were not going as planned, this 'demon' was proving to be a much more dangerous opponent then he had realized. What was it exactly? He wondered, a new enforcer robot? Perhaps an exosuit? He paid closer attention to it, looking for any grain of information that could support a hypothesis. Information was power, and it looked like he would need all the power he could lay his paws on.

Callie and Felina watched the spartan they had gotten to know with equal amounts of awe and fear, he was a completely different person when he was in battle, almost a monster. Callie gasped as he throat slammed a ravager to the ground with so much power that the sound of its neck shattering was audible from the distance and over the sound of the warriors carnage. Then he roared deafeningly, his pistol had been smashed out of his grip by a particularly determined scaled foe. It turned out that its victory would be short lived, Six turned to it and impaled its cheek with his knife. He dragged the blade up and to the left, cutting the entire lower jaw off to flop uselessly to the floor. Before it could even howl, Six caved its chest in with a titanium alloyed boot, ending its suffering and flinging its corpse out of his killing field to scatter another pack of the beasts.

But for all his prowess, the numbers were becoming dangerous. His shield had failed long ago, the ravagers rifle-fire pinging off his super durable armor, the only reason that one of the softer joints of his armor had not been breached was his remarkable agility, dodging bullets with superhuman speed. Six had recovered his shotgun but couldn't find a break in the combat to reload it, he had charged ahead to divert pressure onto him and away from his lesser armored allies. But the stunned Kats were too busy gawking to realize that he needed their help.

He finally faltered when a round punctured the crease between his right shoulder and chestplate, sending a bright crimson spurt of blood shooting out into the oxygen rich atmosphere. The bullet had made a clean puncture, straight through his body and out the other side. He grunted in pain and stabbed the offender in the eye, immediately killing him. By this time Six's fighting style had changed. He went from being methodical and streamlined, to the likeness a cornered wolf, snarling and fighting with a terrible ferocity. Dealing death The spartan's armor was scored and pitted, innumerable rounds having hammered it. The MJOLNIR no longer pristine, it now closely resembled a piece of forging iron, beaten, but not broken.

The thing that snapped the Kats out of their awe stricken inaction was the terrible sight of a round slicing into the bottom right portion of Six's fiberoptic like gorget. He stumbled backwards and grasped the squirting wound close to his throat, almost falling to his knees but still managing to backup just in time to avoid a strike to his helm and divert his wounded shoulder to intercept a burst of fire. The bullets plinking against the thick titanium alloy plates.

Felina had recovered and berated herself harshly for her foolish inaction. "Covering fire!" She ordered, firing her pistol, the other enforcers jolted out of their frozen stares and quickly complying with shots of their own.

Callie had tried to run out into the fight to see to Six, so worried that she was not paying attention to the peril involved with such a reckless maneuver. Thankfully Felina had yanked her tail and pulled her back. "Stay here." She commanded with a strict authoritarian tone.

"I...he..." She stuttered, trying to argue, but the more she thought about it, the more she knew Felina was right. She would only cause more problems due to her lack of experience. And the last thing Six needed at the moment was another problem. "Okay." She mumbled in defeat, backing up and hating herself for her uselessness.

"Don't worry Ms. Briggs, we got his back covered." Razor said with confidence as he prepare to jump in to the skirmish with T-bone.

"Let's kick some tail!" T-bone growled in anticipation, running up to one of the ravagers and firing a bolo from his Glovatrix, trapping its legs and making the reptile fall to the floor, where he proceeded to kick its lights out. Helping his friend, Razor ran past him to scissor kick another pair, sending them flailing backwards. The vigilante duo then launched a clutch of nets, snagging up a majority of the remaining ravagers.

All of this gave Six enough time for his shield to recharge and gather his second wind. The spartan used the time to get a quick survey of the battlefield. The fight was turning in their favor, (those two dressed up kats were actually pretty competent fighters), but this Dark Kat was still directing his minions. The head needed to be cut off of the snake. Even as his shields recharged the spartan began to hack and blast his way through the seemingly endless numbers at the evil masterminds disposal.

-0-0-0-0-0

Dark Kat saw that demon scything a bloody swath through his minions, determinedly heading in his direction. Fine, he would take care of this demonic usurper himself. He let the black armored entity come about three-quarters in before he moved to attack.

With a growl Dark Kat leaped toward his victim and smashed down his massive paws. But instead of a killing blow he was surprised when the demon nimbly dodged the blow and punched him in the gut with a gauntleted fist. The force behind the strike stunned Dark Kat, he had never before felt such pain. It might even had debilitated him if no for his powerful will and tolerance for pain. In retaliation he allowed himself to fall backwards, yet as he was falling he flung his left heel into the demon's helm, sending him sprawling to the ground. With a snarl, Dark Kat felt his hindpaw bruise up, the armor of this thing was incredibly durable and strong. He would have to mitigate his attacks from now on.

While the demon was recovering he backed up to give himself some room and glanced about the battlezone. Most of his ravagers were down, taken out by those infuriating SwatKats an those damn enforcers. It looked like this fight was a defeat, but it mattered not, his Fear Ship was no doubt loaded up and ready to go. He got what he came here for, this loss was minuscule in comparison to the prizes aboard and ravagers were easily replaced. But before he would leave, he will deal with this meddlesome armored thing.

-0-0-0-0-0

Six was recovering from the underhanded hit when he felt another blow hit collide with his wounded shoulder. The spartan snarled as he felt a huge paw hit directly upon his bleeding extremity. Angered he drove a retaliatory knee into his sneaky opponent, lancing it into the Kat's sternum and followed up with an ear ringing haymaker. The huge Kat stumbled but was unbroken. His pistol had run dry and his knife was buried in the throat of some ravage farther back, this fight would have to be done the old fashioned way.

The two adversaries exchanged blows at a lightning pace, almost too fast for the onlookers to see. The group had beaten the last of the ravagers and were watching the titanic duel. The fight was long and brutal, each opponent was unwilling to give ground, hitting each over with merciless fists and feet at staggering velocities, but the outcome was slowly becoming obvious. Six was stronger, tougher, more brutal, and a much more experienced warrior then Dark Kat. He landed one more final blow to the Kat's chin that sent the evil villain too the ground. Before Six could finish him off he fumbled in a pocket in his cape, there was an explosion of light, smoke, and noise. Everyone in the vicinity was blinded and deafened, all except Six, his helm polarized and his auditory suite dulled the sound. Still the smoke concealed his foe and when it faded he was gone.

Six stood there staring at the spot his growing nemesis had just cowardly vacated, and collapsed to his knees in exhaustion. The fight was won this day, but he had been wounded and thrashed quite thoroughly. He fumbled around in one of his armor slots and pulled out a canister of biofoam. The spartan jammed it into his shoulder wound and squeezed the container. He snarled quietly as it filled the hole in his shoulder with the dual compound creating the white foam and sealing the breach in his suit.

Then he walked past the stunned faces of the Kats and retrieved his knife, cleaned the blade with antiseptic from the slot the biofoam came from, and dug it into his neck. Growling in pain, he fished for the bullet lodged into the side of his neck and wormed it out with a particularly loud snarl. The high calibre round clattered to the floor flinging specks of blood in the air. With that finished he cleansed his blade once more and sheathed it in his chestplate harness. With his knife and wounds addressed, Six walked to the nearest wall and slid down to the floor. This world was not as dangerous as the one he had accidentally abandoned, but it was proving to be much more taxing on his patience, health, and armor. He didn't even know his he was going fix the two new breaches in his suit. It's not like there was a random supply of MJOLNIR parts lying around.

The Kats were hesitant to approach the silent warrior. T-bone and Razor marveled at his ability to kick Dark Kat's tail, the enforcer officers were perpetually awed by this seemingly godlike entity, while Callie and Felina were just worried for him. He had been shot twice! Not to mention he had just ripped a bullet out of his neck with a knife! With a worried glance and pace, the two women walked over to the reclining spartan.

Callie didn't even have to kneel down to talk to him eye to visor. "Are you okay?" She asked quietly, comprehending the irony that she had already asked him that at least twice that day.

"Yeah tin man, you should probably be in a hospital of something right now." Felina mumbled concernedly. She was still amazed he was still conscious, there was coagulated blood on the collar of his chestplate and it leaked down to the waist. It was hard to see because it disturbingly blended in with the ebony armor a little too well.

"...I'm still operational." He answered after a few moments of silence. He stood up slowly, stumbling as he did so, the two women catching him and almost getting crushed by him due to his weight. T-bone and Razor jumped in and with their help, they managed to keep the spartan standing. The wall behind him was covered in clotting blood, it had been on the back of his armor, most likely having collected their before he applied the biofoam. Unknown to all but him, he had been bleeding profusely since the moment the bullets hit him till he finally sealed up the wounds. "Some minor blood loss." He grudgingly admitted.

"I'm all for a brave man, but you don't have to be stubborn." Felina said with a forced laugh. In the short time she had known him, his stalwart personality, utter devotion to her friend, and quiet strength had dug a place in her heart for him, and she did not like seeing him like this. Up to this point he had seemed untouchable, invincible, it also burned to know that these wounds were in part, if not completely, her fault, her gawking had essentially abandoned him to the ravagers leading up to his current situation right now.

"Just hang in there." Callie ordered, holding his left gauntlet in her paws as T-bone and Razor helped him out of the compound. The rest of the enforcers were ordered by Felina to secure it and find the scientists.

"I'm fine Callie, just need to get some rest and food to help replenish the lost blood." The spartan was still leaning on the two vigilantes but he was also recovering, even then. He turned to the two helping him walk. "Thanks." He said slowly, it was hard to get used to the fact there was others around. On Reach he watched his team die, until he was the last one left. He fingered the small dog-tag chain and sighed quietly.

"No problem, even though you way a ton, it was with it too see Dark Kat get his tail handed to him!" T-bone chuckled, not realizing the irony that Six did in fact almost way a ton.

"T-bone's right, it's no big deal, any friend of Ms. Briggs is a friend of ours." Razor said with a feline grin.

"Friend.." Six mumbled to himself quietly. Is that what they were? He truly did not understand why he was so attached to this woman, what she meant to him, what all these others meant to him. He often found himself thinking that, and had yet to come to a conclusion.

As they neared the exit to the R&D facility, they could see that more enforcers had arrived and that Commander Feral was there, his back turned and talking with angry looking gestures to the men under his command.

"Shit." Felina grunted, now would defiantly not be the time for the two to meet. What would she do? When the idea struck her it made her groan in reluctance. "Razor, T-bone, can you guys get him out of here? I don't think my uncle should seem him just yet."

"Sure thing Lt. We should be able to get him in the hold, if he doesn't mind flying coach?" T-bone turned to the spartan.

"No problems here, I've flown in worse conditions." Six remarked easily. The pain was starting to fade and he was regaining his strength.

"Good, get him outta hear and I'll take care of Callie." Felina explained, watching as the Swatkats went around the bend with their live cargo.

"Time to face the music." Felina muttered reluctantly, walking with Callie towards the developing police line with hesitation. This would not be a fun conversation.


	11. Chapter 11

Heart of Iron

**Chapter 9: Not Distant Memories**

With the help of T-bone and Razor, Six made it to the Turbokat with little to no problems. With some elbow grease, they managed to leverage the heavy Spartan into the bomb bay of the Turbokat. It was the only place that he could ride in, being way too large to ride shotgun with the two. "Sorry about the rooming, we didn't expect to be lugging an alien back with us." Razor apologized with a grin as they set six down.

"I'll live, beats an insurrectionist POW camp any day." Six chuckled hoarsely, wincing as it exasperated his damaged throat, and maneuvering into a relatively comfortable position. Although there was a missile poking his side he thought with a little unease.

"What's an insurrectionist?" T-bone asked as he climbed onto the wing to start the jet.

"They were a bad bunch of people, and I was trained to deal with them." Six simplified the truth, if they really wanted to know it would take more time then they currently had. "I might tell you one day."

"Alright sounds like a plan, but how about for now we get you outta here, you can chill with us until you are feeling better." Razor said as he closed the bay door blanketing Six in darkness.

Now that he was alone, Six slouched his shoulders and leaned heavily onto the firm paneled wall. He sighed gustily and grabbed his helmet, twisting it sharply to the left. Pressurized air steamed out of the seal as he lifted it off and placed it in his lap. He reached a gauntlet up to feel the plugged throat wound. _'It could have been a lot worse.' _ A few centimeters to the left and his career as a spartan would have ended there, choking on his own blood. But as usual luck was on his side and he would live to fight another day.

Another day, another world, another fight… Six sighed again, wiping his greasy and sweaty raven black hair before propping his face in his gauntlets tiredly. _'When will it all end?' _War was all the spartan knew, since the age of five he had been casted to be a soldier, an expendable resource to save mankind. He thought he knew what he was getting himself into. Six scoffed bitterly, _'like a child would understand.' _Nothing could have been farther from the truth; none of the _**"volunteers"**_ were ready for what would be done to them. All the horrors of science and the brutalities of war, visited upon those still too young to understand. But they had been quick to learn, watching those who had become brothers and sisters die…one by one. Soon they understood, and when understanding came, innocence faded until all that was left was the desire to survive. To outlive the terrors of war and come out the other side relatively intact. Some tried to keep friendships, bit Six, he ended all of his.

It was easier to watch people you had no connection to die. His personal policy was forcefully ended when he joined noble team. And look at what happened, dead, all of them. He had opened his heart only to watch as the covenant ripped it out and glassed it. Jorge had been the closest to Six. The kind hearted spartan had befriended him, even as he pushed him away. Ever the gentleman, he had been friends to all. That is until he gave his life for reach. Six considered him the luckiest out of all of them. He had died thinking that he had saved Reach, his home. He never knew that an enormous fleet would come and burn it to the ground, killing everyone left alive.

Six pulled his gauntleted hands away from his face and lifted the dog-tag chain from around his collar, staring at it in the darkness of the hold, augmented cobalt eyes easily piercing the dusk. He remembered when Jorge gave him his tags, and his final words.

"_Tell them to make it count."_

Six thumbed the stenciled lettering and barcode with a gloved finger. He had tried to make it count. He only hoped that what they did had a lasting effect on the war, that his and Jorge's efforts did _count_.

He felt the ship vibrate and the engines roar, then a feeling of weightlessness let him know they were airborne. The spartan was jolted back as the ship rocketed to wherever its destination lied, and jogging him out of his revere. _'Well I will make it count here Jorge, I swear it.'_ He swore as he clutched the necklace tightly in his fist, careful not to warp the metal. He had been given a second chance it would seem, and this time he wouldn't fuck it up. With an exhausted exhale, Six placed his helmet back on his head, sealing it. _'A spartan's job is never done. But for now, this spartan is going to rest.'_ Six drifted off to sleep, using this time to catch some lost zzzzs. Soon he was asleep, a troubled but restful sleep.

"What do you think about this Six guy?" T-bone asked as he piloted the Turbokat back to their hideout. He had already gathered his preliminary opinion on him and wanted to know Razor's.

Razor frowned under his oxygen mask as he formulated his response. "I don't know T-bone, first time I met him he was ready to kill without hesitation. Only Ms. Briggs's intervention prevented it. He is a dangerous almost unstoppable machine of destruction; yet he seems to be dedicated to Ms. Brigss. We don't even know what he looks like under the armor. The only reason we know for sure he isn't a robot is the fact he bled. We know virtually nothing about him or where he came from. What people would have need for a warrior like him, how was he created?" Razor sighed. "Still he has shed blood for us so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I just hope it isn't misplaced."

T-bone digested all that his friend had to say before replying with a chuckle. "You always were the more talkative one, a simple yay or nay would have sufficed."

At that they both laughed and smiled. "And you were always the bluntest. Still, thanks for listening to me rant." Razor said with a grateful tone, it was good to finally get it all off of his chest.

"Anytime buddy, but we will have to finish this another time, the hanger is in sight." Conversation died as the Turbokat descended into the hanger, the VTOL engines setting it down on the floor with a gentle thud. Both kats deftly climbed out of the cockpit, years of experience around fighters lending them that ease. While T-bone went to the locker, Razor headed to the undercarriage of the Turbokat to let out the spartan. As he reached for the maintenance switch he found himself hesitating, paw millimeters from the small control. What if the alien warrior was waiting to leap out and kill him? Razor chided himself and flipped it, although he did wince and close his eyes reflexively. When, surprisingly, no killing blow was brought down upon him he opened his eyes and looked inside.

The armored man was propped against the wall, chin resting slightly turned to the left on his thick breastplate. His arms were folded in his lap, holding onto something that looked like a necklace as he sat there unmoving. _'He must be asleep.'_ Razor thought as he took this time to study him closely. He couldn't tell why, but he got the feeling that the alien was exhausted, not physically, but mentally. His aura was one of a person used to the grind of war. This must have been one of the rare times he allowed himself to sleep deeply. Hesitant to awaken him, he just stared at the spartan. Oddly enough, Razor sensed a kindred spirit inside the bulky charcoal black armor. Almost as if he was the same as T-bone and himself. Someone who defended people who did not want but needed them, giving up a normal life to do it.

Suddenly the man's helmet turned to him. "Are we here? Well wherever here is anyways."

Razor was jolted out of his thoughts and rubbed the back of his head; a little guilty that he had been staring. "Yeah, we just landed. I was going to wake you up but it seems that I am no longer needed."

The spartan was quiet for a moment. "…Thank you anyways, it has been awhile since I could sleep without the threat of death looming over me." At that moment, the spartan sounded depressed, something was definitely bothering him.

"Is there…something wrong?' Razor asked slowly, not sure how to broach the topic with such a strange individual. It wasn't every day that one talked with an alien from another world, let alone one that displayed ruthlessness and kindness in equal measure.

"No, just some old memories…painful one." The spartan replied quietly, swinging out of the bay to stand in the hanger, his helm revolving as she took in the sight. "This is quite the setup you two have here; it's almost as well supplied as a UNSC hanger." He praised as he looked at the efficiently cluttered space filled with various tools and parts. There must have been enough implements and parts here to build two more jets.

Razor found himself beaming at the unexpected approval, tail swishing happily behind him. "Thanks, we have put a lot of work into our operations here. You are the first one to see the inner workings. I hope you plan on keeping it a secret." Razor added, worried that he may be their undoing.

The spartan turned to him seriously. "I would never breach someone's trust, especially ones who helped me when they did not have to."

Razor exhaled in relief, one problem taken care of. _'That only leaves a few dozen more.'_ He thought wryly. All they had to do now was find out to keep the spartan occupied until the heat died down. Luckily, his dilemma was taken care of by Six himself.

"I don't suppose I could use your facilities? My armor needs a little fine tuning." He said, looking down upon his bloody and battered MJOLNIR.

"Sure! Help yourself to whatever you need; T-bone and I will be upstairs if you need anything." Razor replied as he went to his locker, starting to switch back into his normal clothes just as his friend was finishing.

With that being said, Six wandered around, grabbing anything that looked familiar and piling it all up on one of the few barren tables. _'These kats were pretty well stocked.'_ He thought to himself. They even had some tools that were similar to the cradle system, the machine that helped the spartan take off and don his armor. Obviously the tools were not meant for it, but they had the same qualities. For example they had a small machine that lifted extremely heavy loads, something perfectly suited to removing the denser sections of his armor. There was also some power tools that he could repurpose to loosen his plates, a trolley durable enough for him to lay his armor on, and some other things that looked useful.

Once he was ready, he waited until Razor was gone before starting. He had no desire to be seen outside his armor by anyone, possibly forever if he could help it. Although he thought, '_Callie and Felina might be able to at some time'. _Puzzled, he buried that odd notion and continued his hard task. It took him a full hour to just figure out how he was going to do it. Eventually he had an idea and began. Twenty minutes later, his breastplate and bulky pauldrons sat on the trolley. When they were out of the way, the rest of the process became much easier. In half the original time he had the remainder of the armor on the mobile table. All he was wearing now was his nano-weave undersuit, his helm and his boots. After a few minutes of debate he took off his helmet as well, laying it on top of the breastplate, facing away from him.

For the first time he could smell his surroundings. The oiliness of the well maintained tools, the acrid fragrance of gunpowder, smoke, the copper tang of spilt blood, and a dozen other odd scents that he could not identify. Taking a minute to enjoy the good and bad aspects of scent, he fumbled around in a previously unopened pocket. As he did he wondered what his diminutive squirrel friend was up to. No doubt he was basking in the kat woman, Karen, affection. Still, he found himself almost missing the little bugger…almost.

Concerns aside, he at last pulled out what he was searching for. A relatively large container that had gear he would need to survive. It had some quick titanium alloy jell, a small tube that was used to plug very small dents in armor. A suture set, for resealing any tears in his suit. It also had an additional cylinder of another liquid, used for mending any cracks in his visor. There were some other things that he didn't need at the moment as well nut as stated, they were not needed so he put them back into the container.

With his supplies on hand, the spartan effected repairs on his armor, going over it with a familiar hand. This was his armor; it has taken him through the terrors of war and strife of rebellion. Saving his life in situations he doubted he would survive. It had withstood Covenant plasma weapons, needler shards, irradiated slugs, explosives and insurrectionist bullets. It was so customized that no other suit like it could be found in the known galaxy; at least it would be if he was still in the same galaxy. Something he questioned very much with each passing day. With his armor attended to, he picked up his helmet, staring at the crack running along the visor. He would have to be more careful from now on, he was no longer part of a team. He would need to watch his own back. Six would like to live at least a little bit longer; life was just starting to look up for him.

He looked into the interior of his helm and saw something that caught his eye. It was the little recording device built into the circuitry and running up to the camera under his flashlight. His hand froze just touching the button. So much was stored in the data, the last glorious stand of Team Noble. The death of every one of his friends lay inside the drives. Kat, Emile, Carter…Jorge. His hand began to tremble and he deliberately pulled away. He was not ready to see it all again, not yet. He doubted he would ever be ready; he was sorely tempted to delete it all, but couldn't do it. That would be like spitting on their sacrifice, their memory. Six would never do that to them. So exhaling with a shuttering breathe he flipped the helmet right-side up and tried to focus on the fissure in his polarized visor.

He was only partially successful, subconsciously drawing his hand back to the recorder before realizing and stopping himself. With that distraction it took him twice as long to fix what should have been the easiest repair to make. Finally he finished, almost flinging the helmet at the wall, but only causing it to roll away on the metal surface of the hanger. As it revolved, each rotation of the obsidian death-mask was like rusty a nail drilling into his fragile head.

With a sudden snarl, he grabbed the trolley, and with his immense strength, slung it away from him, sending it and its contents scattering across the ground with a clatter. Six started it hyperventilate, stumbling drunkenly and grabbing his head, hissing as he was assaulted by flashbacks.

"**Tell 'em to make it count."**

**"What does he get off calling a demolition op priority one-?"**

**"You're on your own, Noble. Carter out."**

"**I'm ready! How 'bout you?!"**

The memories ravaged Six's mind, sending him to his knees, letting out a primal roar as he clawed his own head, desperate to rid himself of the pain. He finally collapsed, with just enough strength left to make it to his helmet and sealing it securely on his head. _'Forgive me.' _He whispered in his mind, not receiving an answer as he finally blacked out.


End file.
